While most of us have spent our whole lives walking, how much consideration have we really given to the full benefits?
Writer and keen walker Annabel Streets has been researching the science behind walking, and has found walking can expand your mind, build muscle, boost your immunity, improve your vision, burn calories, help you sleep, reduce anxiety, improve your memory and lift your mood.
In her new book, 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science Of Walking For Wellness And Joy, One Week At A Time, Annabel Streets takes readers through 52 weeks of walks, which will inspire and encourage you to mix up how, when and where you walk, to get the most out of each step.
Photo: Supplied / pexels
Her book has more than enough ideas for different walks for each week of the year and it’s packed with science to back up the benefits.
Walking in the rain, for example, is healthy because the air pollution clears up and nature’s molecules move around, she says.
“There’s more and more studies and data showing that pollution, particularly the smaller pollution PM2.5, is particularly bad for us, it’s been linked to all sorts of things from Alzheimer’s to brain fog to respiratory disease.
“The rain [also] really shakes up all of the plants and the soil … and all these molecules start moving around within tree trunks and leaves, and these molecules are incredibly good for us … [they] are helping us feel more relaxed.
“They have been shown in all sorts of tests to do strange things like shrink breast cancer tumours and scientists are sort of still unpicking what it is that these plants produce that make us feel so good.”
And letting your skin feel the cold air as you walk triggers the body’s production of brown fat, which helps us burn calories, she says.
Streets recommends using your peripheral vision and scanning your landscape before you walk, because research has found lifting your gaze can help you relax.
“As soon as we gaze outwards, all sorts of things start happening in our brain.
“Memories start to sort of be shifted around and be processed … so it’s been really effective with veterans and people who have got PTSD.”
She is also an advocate for walking in the dark because it prompts the body’s production of melatonin, which is the hormone that helps us sleep.
“I think beyond that, there’s this is very, I think it’s quite primal, sense of connection that you get when you look up and have that night sky above you.
“It sort of puts so many things into perspective so you feel both sort of enlarged, in a mysterious way, but also feel shrunk down, you’re this tiny ant in this huge, huge cosmos.
“It’s very good for reflection and contemplation but it’s also good just sometimes if you’ve had a bit of a day to calm you down and put things into perspective.”
Annabel Streets Photo: Penguin Random House
Research has shown a late afternoon walk among green trees is as effective as taking a sleeping pill, she says.
On the other hand, she says if you walk in the morning and get bright light to the backs of your eyes, it sets your body’s circadian rhythm for the day and gives you a big rush of cortisol – a hormone which helps with your energy levels.
You can also try walking using your other senses, such as smell or by listening, instead of sight.
“We’re so eye focused that it’s quite hard, sometimes you have to literally close your eyes to stop all the distraction that’s coming in visually.
“With hearing, I was fascinated to discover some of the science behind the sounds we hear so the most relaxing sound for most people is actually the sound of water … but the most uplifting sound is actually birdsong.”
You can even convert most things you do while sitting into walking activities, she says.
“Work is the obvious one, so I actually bought myself a walking desk, which is like a treadmill, but it’s got a desk bit on the front … And you can just work while your legs are moving, and I’ve found that really beneficial in so many ways.
“But also, I noticed that how I was thinking was slightly different.
“People who studied this in walking meetings found that people who moved are able to come up with more ideas, it’s almost as though the movement shakes your brain a bit and you start to make connections… through different parts of your memory, different parts of your brain that you don’t when you’re sitting down.”
The science also shows walking in a group or with a friend, even if just in your imagination, can help long distances or high mountains feel less intimidating, she says.
“But I think if you want to reflect or you want to work out a solution to a problem or sort of have more creative ideas, it probably is best to go on your own or perhaps with a dog but the idea is then you’re not engaged with talking, you’re just engaged with thinking.”
Trying different routes and time can also help you mentally, with a recent study during the pandemic finding that people who mixed up their walking locations or landscapes had better mental health than those who stuck to the same routine, Streets says.
Streets also wrote Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women, which she says was the starting point for her latest book.
