Walking Works

I am a walker. Whenever I really want to get down to some serious thinking about something, I will often go out and pace around. And it helps, besides relaxing me. To be sure, I don't walk anywhere near to the degree that I used to in years past (maybe I don't think as much, either). In "olden days", I would often simply walk to wherever it was I wanted to go, even if it was several miles away. Usually, though, I would take the longest walks during periods when the weather was mild or cold. I remember one winter in early 1978 when I often walked for hours at a time (back when I was a student at the University of Florida).

For the sake of exercise, there is nothing to compare with walking for its combination of a low impact activity with benefits to the body in so many areas (especially cardiovascular). And one can walk anywhere, so it doesn't take any special equipment or location (although I notice quite a few people using the local YMCA to walk on their treadmills). Walking is also something you can do with someone else without getting bogged down in athletic competition (something that has happened to a degree with running). Nor do you have to dress any particular way to do it. To me, just walking outside for a while and vigorously breathing the outdoors air while looking around at the scenery I'm passing makes any hint of drudgery commonly associated with exercise disappear.

As I've written before, I am working at becoming a better runner, and have experienced some moderate success with this. But I don't run every day. To fill in the gap, simply walking sounds like the prescription for me! How about you?