Walking – I'm running with it

Exercise. It’s always been about the heart-pumping, sweat-pouring, oxygen-demanding kind. That pinnacle of endeavours; that aim to become ever faster; fitness activity with that feelgood-but-bad factor – in running shoes, in water or, of late, on a bike.

The more the body aches post-workout, the fitter the beast. I have taken Herbert Spencer’s Darwin-esque theory of the survival of the fittest and I’ve run with it, interpreting it as I see fit. If I’m not standing still, I cannot catch anything, right? I know that’s a contradiction, but allow me that. As I hurtle towards 50, I want to enjoy life in a half-decent physical state and enjoy it before it all goes horribly wrong, if you get my drift...

Feel the burn

I’m a typical 20something of the 1980s. Back then, younger readers, it was all about throwing our bodies around in high energy, high impact aerobic classes. It was an era of Jane Fonda ‘feeling the burn’ (in the first ever exercise video of our time) and that was many years before Davina’s tame efforts – and only a year before Miss McCall turned sweet 16. It was a time when your conscience barked silently at you that ‘no pain no gain’ adage over and over and over until, muscles wrecked, the body grew bored of the same old routine and the mind was dulled by the same old music tracks.

But now, even that iconic workout video of Jane’s has grown up – 32 earlier this year – and with it, I feel I have, too. For I have discovered walking. Not the baby steps discovery of some 48 years ago, but proper ‘Salomon walking boot’ walking. Hiking, if you will. And to those who scorn and scoff and are under the age of 30, take heed. Footwear doesn’t just have to be about pounding the streets of London’s West End in physically disabling high heels. I’m now just as happy hotfooting it around the west end of Europe in comfortable boots.

Walking is cool. You don't feel a burn, you merely grow a little warmer and you simply see more ‘stuff’ than you do when running or, even, cycling. I would go so far as to say, it’s the new cycling – once the preserve of a generation far beyond my own, I am now extolling the virtues of an exercise I was once only curious about, mostly prompted by the hoards of ramblers who traipsed the canal paths and tramped the fields near where I lived when I wasn’t dancing in fluorescent leggings and leotards to electro pop at the YMCA gym in a small underground studio off Tottenham Court Road.

Communities lay undiscovered

I suggest to those of you under the age of 30 to factor it in to your fitness portfolio now. It complements all that aerobic exercise and is a revelation, too. Whole communities lay undiscovered out there that may only be enjoyed at walking pace – flora and fauna, all creatures – great and small, and people, so many people. And, if you haven’t some beautiful countryside to explore, take an amble through the city and remember to look up, discover more about your neighbourhood, its buildings and get fit into the bargain.

Turning point

Spanish families have mastered the art of city walks. Visit any of the major cities and you will see large groups of them out enjoying themselves as they ‘walk the promenade’ in the early evening, just before sunset.

DOG FOR SALE – LOVES WALKING.

Charities raise funds utilising this most simple and most accessible of exercise. Signing up for a sponsored walk may prove the turning point you need in this pursuit for a slo-mo, steadier-paced exercise to complement the rest of it. And if you need further inspiration, you can always buy a dog.