I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
NOEL COWARD
These are two posts that I came across in the reddit walking forum. I thought they were worth sharing with some commentary. Here is the first post:
Misconceptions about walkers
I'll start with some I've heard and add your own
1. Walkers are runner wannabes
2. walkers failed at running
3. Walkers are out of shape
4. Walkers are always getting in the way of runners and bikers.
5. Any exercise you can do just moving around your home isn't an exercise
What misconceptions, slurs and lies have you hear?
Walking is usually the first thing you do on the way to becoming a runner. I remember mixing walking and running when I was in college until I had enough fitness to run an entire 20 minutes. I was so proud of myself when I was able to do that back in my younger days. Now, I am ashamed that I ever did that. I ruined a good walk. A smarter Charlie would have started walking for fitness instead of running. Today, I can candidly say that I am not a runner wannabe.
As for failing at running, I have to laugh at that. The truth is that most runners fail at running especially when they pull out of a race they paid to run because of some injury. My opinion is that running is a failure as a fitness activity. It shows that you allowed vanity to overwhelm your common sense.
I do not know how you define being in shape. Most walkers could not complete the Ironman Triathlon on walking alone. Then again, most runners could not do it on running alone. Shape is a relative thing. In comparison to being sedentary, walkers are definitely in better shape than those who do not walk.
Runners and bikers annoy each other. All I can say is that walking came first. I don't have a problem with runners, but bikers are a pain to the pedestrians. Drivers hate everyone.
As for moving about your home, where else would you move? But I do agree that counting steps to the bathroom on your FitBit is ridiculous. This is why I don't wear a FitBit.
I don't hear any other lies, slurs, and misconceptions about walking. This is because walkers actually walk. You can do that when you aren't injured all the time.
Here is the second post:
Walking IS exercise. Get over it!
Ok this is kind of a rant but I guess I had to get this out of my thoughts somehow :D
I'm tired of people who tell me that walking is not exercise. Yes it is, even if it doesn't feel like it. I hate every other type of exercise and walking is the only thing that I can manage without getting bored or too tired.
Heck it is even better than other forms of exercise. You know why?
1. You can do it anywhere, anytime. No special equipment is required. You can get up on your lunch break and go for a walk.
2. You can get stuff done WHILE you are out for a walk. You can go grocery shopping while getting your daily steps in, you can go to the mall, you can go and meet friends etc etc
3. It is literally free. You don't need a gym membership
4. If you do it outside, there are benefits from it as well: More vitamin D on sunny days; outdoors is more relaxing than staring at the wall in the gym, you can explore your city or the nature...
5. It isn't as tiring as other forms of exercise, which means you can do it day in-day out and you will barely feel it in your legs the next day.
6. It keeps your mind in shape. Some of the best ideas I have come up with came to me on my daily walks.
7. It keeps your body in shape. You work your muscles and your heart muscle as well
8. The risk of injury is way smaller than with other forms of exercise
If you come up with another benefit, feel free to add it to the list :)
I can't find anything to add to this one because this poster nails it. I will say that walking is not exactly free. I burn through enough shoes that it is comparable to a gym membership. But I would burn through shoes even if I went to the gym. As such, walking is the cheapest fitness activity that comes to mind.
The debate here is the one between running and walking. The simple fact is that running has a better press agent than walking. I like what Roger Burlinson wrote over at Sport Walk:
Can walking really get me fit?Quick answer… YES! There’s been a lot written and said about walking in the last few years and it would be easy to think that it’s some kind of miracle solution, given some of the discoveries that have been made. But the simple fact is that walking, as a method of getting or staying fit and for general wellbeing, has just been hiding in plain sight all this time.
Walking has definitely been hiding in plain sight. For years, I have seen old ladies and moms with strollers walking the streets and at the mall. It never occurred to me that I should do the same thing. I was too vain to give walking any notice even if those walkers were in better shape than me. Age and injury have a way of peeling off vanity.
