Walking for Fitness

Walking and hiking can dramatically improve your fitness, and the Walk and Ramble Walking Shop is committed to offering some of the best walking boots, outdoor clothes, rucksacks and walking equipment to aid your enjoyment of the outdoors.  If you require any further advice, please feel free to contact us as we are keen walkers ourselves!

Walking to increase fitness

We all know that walking can be fun and revitalising, but it also provides an excellent form of exercise contributing to your overall happiness and wellbeing.  Regular walking, like all 'aerobic' exercise, can have a dramatic effect on cardiorespiratory fitness or 'aerobic power'. Regular exercise carried out three times a week for 30 minutes or more at the right intensity will result in increases of aerobic power (Davison & Grant, 1993)

The intensity of walking for fitness benefits varies according to the age and fitness of the individual, but generally, 'brisk is best'.  A simple way to work out how briskly you should walk is to aim to walk "fast without overexertion". You should just about be able to hold a conversation while you are walking - the 'talk test'.

For the more technically minded, you should aim for the 'training zone'. To calculate this, take your age away from 220. Then try to walk so that your heart rate is at least 45% of this figure. So for example a 40 year old would be aiming to have a heart rate of at least 81 beats per minute (220 - 40 x 0.45).

Even 10 minute brisk walks can increase fitness, provided that they are brisk enough. One study at Loughbrough University found that women walking continuously for 30 minutes 5 days a week had almost identical increases in fitness as women who split their 30 minutes into three 10 minute walks (Murphy & Hardman, 1998). Perhaps even more encouraging was that the women who walked for 3 x 10 minutes lost more weight and reported greater decreases in waist circumference than those who walked for 30 minutes. Brisk is best - walk fast without overexertion. Walking for weight control

Control of body weight occurs when the calories taken in as food are balanced with the calories expended through walking and other physical activities. The key issue for weight control is to maximise the total volume of calories used, (at any intensity) and to combine this with healthy eating. Walking one mile (1.6km) can burn up at least 100kcal (420kJ) of energy and walking two miles (3.2km) a day, three times a week, can help reduce weight by one pound (0.5kg) every three weeks. Walking also alters fat metabolism so that fat is burned up instead of sugars, helping to reduce weight.

You can also find more information on walking for health reasons here.

Walking off Calories and Weight

A pound of fat equals 3500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week you will need to expend 3500 more calories than you eat that week, whether through increased activity or decreased eating or both. Losing 1-2 pounds of fat a week is a sensible goal, and so you will want to use the combination of increased activity and eating less that will total 3500 calories for 7 days.

How you burn calories

Your weight x distance = energy used walking.  Time does not matter as much as distance. If you speed up to walking a mile in 13 minutes or less, you will be burning more calories per mile. But for most beginning walkers, it is best to increase the distance before working on speed.  A simple rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile for a 160 pound person.

A popular way of burning calories whilst walking, and taking part in full body excercise, is through Nordic Walking, where you use Nordic Walking poles to aid your walking stride.

 

Note about the Calories Chart

You burn more calories per mile at very low speeds because you are basically stopping and starting with each step and your momentum isn't helping to carry you along. Meanwhile, at very high walking speeds you are using more muscle groups with arm motion and with a racewalking stride - these extra muscles burn up extra calories with each step. Running may burn more calories per mile as there is an up and down motion lifting your weight off the ground as well as moving it forward.

Fuel your body

"What should I eat and drink to best cope with altitude?" (Katherine Flow, Trail 2006).

There are lots of nutrional theories, but they all face the same practical mountaineering obstacles at altitude: you can't carry what you ideally need, and you feel to queasy to eat even if you could. As long as you drink plenty (at least 3 litres during the day), the best advice is to take as much as you can of the food you like - even if that's deep fried Mars bars. "It's better to have stuff you know you'll be able to eat than nutritionally correct stuff you won't". Hot food vs. cold food? Which has got more energy?

To get energy from food, it must be digested. However, hot or cold it is when eaten, all food is digested at body temperature (37 deg C). The heat in hot food does have an extra calorific value, but it's not accessible as energy for exercise, and it's not as much as you think. Consider a 500g meal at 60 deg C. The temperature difference between you and your dinner is 23 deg C. Multiply that by the 500g of the meal, and you get the calorific value of your meal's warmth: 11,500 calories or 11.5 kcal - about the same as a quarter of a Jaffa Cake.

Walking with and without blisters

Blisters are the curse of walkers. You can prevent blisters and you can treat them properly when they develop to prevent further damage. Here are techniques and products to keep your feet intact or to help them heal and quench the pain.

Lubrication

Blisters develop where rubbing from shoes and socks tears the skin. By lubricating your feet you can reduce the friction and prevent blisters.

Keep Your Feet Dry

Wet skin is easier to tear and form blisters, so wicking away sweat and keeping your feet dry are another key to preventing blisters. Use cornstarch in your socks or even use antiperspirant on your feet to keep them dry. But your socks are the real key. They must be of wicking fabric, not cotton, in order to get the moisture away from your skin.

Cover Ups

If an area is already developing a hot spot or blister, or you know it is an area that will, then covering it with a blister pad is the best way to go. Today there are many products that do this well and provide moist protection and healing before or after a blister develops.

Blister Kits, Be prepared

Before you head out on a long walk, take along a blister kit to be ready to cover up any hot spots or treat any blisters. Here are good choices for compact kits with just what you need, easy to carry along.

How to Treat a Blister

First, stop and put on a cover-up (plasters and tape should do it) at the first sign of a hot spot on your feet. 

How to Treat a Blister Still Blistering

Maybe it's your walking boots? Your shoes could still be rubbing your feet. Your toes need room to expand into as your feet will swell a full shoe size on a walk.  You need to be fit correctly for walking shoes. Find out how and where to get that done with our Walking Boots Advice page.  Or maybe your walking boots are the wrong shape and you need a new pair - see Walk and Ramble's range of men's walking boots and women's walking boots here.  

Maybe it's your insoles? If you haven't changed shoes, but changed to a new insole or arch support, that could be the culprit in causing blisters.  Investigate walking with and without the insert, insole, or arch support. Insoles can reduce the space in your shoe for your foot and toes, leading to blisters.  

Maybe it's your walking socks?  Walking socks now come in different materials, knitting style, padding and gereral thickness.  And with a wide variety of walking socks available it's not worth wearing anything not designed for the job.  See Walk and Ramble's range of walking socks here.

Please note: The advice offered above should be only used afor general guidance only.  Before taking part in any form of exercise programme, please consult your doctor first.