Prolonged Walking As Health Promoter

Collden

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Walking is an underappreciated form of exercise but some claim that extensive walking (several hours/day) can dramatically improve health and fitness. What has been your experience? I'm particularly intrigued by the potential for prolonged walking to improve digestion, as I feel that my digestion is definitely worse in periods when I'm unusually sedentary. Perhaps 10 miles a day like Tesla is enough?

Who Here Has Gone From Having Belly Fat To Having A Flat Stomach?

Guy Lowers His Cortisol To The Lower Limit Of Normal And Doubles His T By Hiking 10hrs A Day
 

Maljam

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An hour of enjoyable walking a day (usually listening to podcasts I like) improves my mood, digestion, energy and sleep. 10 miles seems excessive and hard to do while keeping a normal lifestyle.
 
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Collden

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An hour of enjoyable walking a day (usually listening to podcasts I like) improves my mood, digestion, energy and sleep. 10 miles seems excessive and hard to do while keeping a normal lifestyle.
I was considering just incorporating it into my daily work commute which would slash the amount of time required substantially. I've had periods where I regularly walked for about an hour a day in total, it does noticeably improve my health but not to the point of reversing accumulated health issues like belly fat and hypertension. Maybe upping it to approximately 3hrs a day would make the difference. This was a major part of Nikola Teslas health routine.
 

Quelsatron

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A lot of geniuses were heavy walkers, Nietzsche, Kant, etc. It's one of the areas mankind outshines the other animals as well. I can imagine that walking or other prolonged movement is probably mandatory for things like lymph flow to work optimally. I suspect my liver dysfunction/estrogen coincidentally peaked somewhere after march (got a lot of spider veins and cherry spots, though it might have been the boatload of supplements i was taking too), which is when I was barred from going to my thesis lab so I lost a lot of walking opportunity.
 

rei

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barefoot walking, on a trail in the forest for hours on end is probably some of the most healthy things you can do. As long as you don't exceed the limit and go into stress metabolism, you probably cannot have too much.

But using cushioned shoes, walking in the city on a flat pavement in the air pollution is probably tolerable at best.
 

shine

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I bought an e-mountainbike recently and the last 4 days I've been riding it through the woods/along the crop fields for 2 hours per day. The electric motor makes it so that it isn't too demanding and exhausting when cycling uphill on dirt roads and I would compare it to fast walking/hiking. I feel really good while riding it, dopaminergic. The sunlight, the speed, the wind all make it really enjoyable. Afterwards I still feel the enhanced metabolism for hours and my sleep is a lot deeper and more refreshing.
 

Maljam

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I was considering just incorporating it into my daily work commute which would slash the amount of time required substantially. I've had periods where I regularly walked for about an hour a day in total, it does noticeably improve my health but not to the point of reversing accumulated health issues like belly fat and hypertension. Maybe upping it to approximately 3hrs a day would make the difference. This was a major part of Nikola Teslas health routine.

Have you tried sprints to lower the belly fat?

What is the relevance of mentioning Tesla? Just because someone is famous doesn't mean you should emulate him. He was reportedly celibate. Apparently he used to fold a napkin 18 times before he began eating to settle his OCD, will you be doing that too?
 
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Collden

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Have you tried sprints to lower the belly fat?

What is the relevance of mentioning Tesla? Just because someone is famous doesn't mean you should emulate him. He was reportedly celibate. Apparently he used to fold a napkin 18 times before he began eating to settle his OCD, will you be doing that too?
Sprints are too physically taxing, particularly impossible for anyone with joint issues from a history of overexercising.
 

SonOfEurope

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I go everywhere on foot... I have a bicycle but rarely use it. I have walked almost everywhere my whole life, 4/5/6/7 km I've done in both winter and summer.

I avoid the main streets and cut through suburbs and when possible the woods and their connecting paths... Like a portal man... You enter the woods on Zoe Wright Ave. And exit them in Joe Wong Avenue... Amazing.

My favourite colour is deep Green, followed by sunset Gold, I have seen them both merge on the sunsets in the woods near Lake Ontario.

Nothing has ever been able to clean or should I say "re-organize" my mental structure.

Man in winter... Canada here.... There inevitably comes that point when your toes feel cold even with double socks + winter boots... But there is a beauty to be admired in the barren landscape with bald trees and grey skies.

In Summer you appreciate the endless green illuminated by intense light and huge cotton ball or by atmospheric term "Cumulonimbus" Clouds towering and rolling over you, the smell of plants, the warmth of the sun and your sweat cooling when you walk against the breeze.

Getting lost in a foggy autumn day is a good trip.
 

Jing

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I walk everyday for 1.30mins - 2 hours definitely helps me feel better.
 

Quelsatron

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I'm going to start walking 1-2 hours every day. I suspect corona sedentariness has aggravated the telangiectasia in my feet, anyone know if walking will help in that regard?
 

lvysaur

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but some claim that extensive walking (several hours/day) can dramatically improve health and fitness. What has been your experience?
It's arguably THE most important factor in the modern lifestyle. Especially American lifestyles, as we live in wide open spaces on a relatively unpopulated continent. The result is people drive everywhere, and nobody gets any normal walking in.

In addition many US suburbs were intentionally designed with a lack of sidewalks in order to keep out lower income/Black people. You'll notice that a lot of main streets or turnpikes have no sidewalks, and instead have a huge patch of grass, or worse nothing.

When I went to college in a city where I had to walk 1 mile to and fro campus, my health was far superior, and it began to tank only a few months after graduation. This was despite drinking fluoridated water and breathing in who-knows what.
 

Jessie

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10hrs a day seems excessive. As long as you stop before you reach a stress response then it's probably beneficial.

Slow walking improves postprandial lipids (likely through increased steroidogenesis). Walking will also improve intestinal motility, which likely results in lower estrogen and endotoxin (likely why walkers are skinnier on average).

But there's clearly a diminishing return effect to walking. Once the organism starts perceiving it as a stressor, then it starts doing more harm then good. A individual's stress point could vastly differ from another individual's depending on their current state of health. I think this is far more important then adhering to any dogmatic advice like "be sure to get your 10k steps in for the day."

If you can only do 2k steps before feeling a stress, then stop at 2k, don't go for the 10 or 15k or whatever mainstream is recommending nowdays.
 

SonOfEurope

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It's arguably THE most important factor in the modern lifestyle. Especially American lifestyles, as we live in wide open spaces on a relatively unpopulated continent. The result is people drive everywhere, and nobody gets any normal walking in.

In addition many US suburbs were intentionally designed with a lack of sidewalks in order to keep out lower income/Black people. You'll notice that a lot of main streets or turnpikes have no sidewalks, and instead have a huge patch of grass, or worse nothing.

When I went to college in a city where I had to walk 1 mile to and fro campus, my health was far superior, and it began to tank only a few months after graduation. This was despite drinking fluoridated water and breathing in who-knows what.


Exactly Man... My relatives and Friends in Europe are amazed when I tell them how people abuse the use of vehicles compared to Central Spain/South France where people walk everyday in the much narrower streets, and they tell me it's a shame here despite having so much space for trails and low population-to-space ratio unlike Europe people just don't value it here.
 
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Collden

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10hrs a day seems excessive. As long as you stop before you reach a stress response then it's probably beneficial.

Slow walking improves postprandial lipids (likely through increased steroidogenesis). Walking will also improve intestinal motility, which likely results in lower estrogen and endotoxin (likely why walkers are skinnier on average).

But there's clearly a diminishing return effect to walking. Once the organism starts perceiving it as a stressor, then it starts doing more harm then good. A individual's stress point could vastly differ from another individual's depending on their current state of health. I think this is far more important then adhering to any dogmatic advice like "be sure to get your 10k steps in for the day."

If you can only do 2k steps before feeling a stress, then stop at 2k, don't go for the 10 or 15k or whatever mainstream is recommending nowdays.
On the other hand, if you're unable to walk more than 2 000 steps without feeling tired or stressed, it likely indicates a severe health issue. A person of normal health should be able to walk 10 000 steps in a day without needing to recover.

I'd speculate that inability to walk for very long is often related to an inflamed gut and severe bacteria/endotoxin issues, since walking will acutely stimulate the gut and increase blood endotoxin levels and inflammation. In which case walking, even though it may be uncomfortable, might be just the thing a person needs to start cleaning out his gut.
 
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Uselis

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Walking is awesome! What works for me even better is working physically for 5 hours or so. It has walking, lifting and cardio components. However doing those separately never works for me, my body always shuts down.

I wonder if rucking (backpack walking) would induce similar benefits.
 

Elize

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to improve digestion

Have you tried vagus nerve stimulation for digestion and gut issues? It works for me.
 

BearWithMe

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Walking helped me tremendously when my health was at its worst. It definitely is very therapeutical, especially when you are walking in nature and breathing properly.

When my digestion is really messed up, walking is the only thing that helps.
 

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