What Walking Really Does for Us: Walking and Strength
As we age, we’re told we lose muscle strength unless we engage in strength training. This article disputes the notion that walking isn’t strength training.
We build strength in different ways. Strength of character, strength of mind, strength of body. We’re told we need to exercise if we want to keep our vitality, our cognition, our balance, our daily functioning. Few people talk about maintaining strength of character. It seems once you’ve built character, it stays with you.
Physical strength, emotional strength, character strength, and strength of mind influence each other. One feeds the other and vice-versa. To build physical strength, you need strength of mind. To build emotional strength, you need character strength. You build character by overcoming obstacles.
Strength and Walking
I am a walker and a hiker. I want to talk of building strength through walking. For humans, walking is a basic mode of locomotion. Think of the joy a child feels when it stands and takes initial steps. Via walking, a child discovers entirely new experiences. Walking opens a different way of seeing and experiencing the world.
Seeing and experiencing through walking lasts a lifetime. If we give up walking for driving a car, or another mechanized mode of transportation, we give up an essential means of maintaining vitality. By minimizing walking, we gradually lose physical strength. By losing physical strength, we lose confidence, become emotionally unstable, which leads to loss of character strength.
Have you ever experienced renewed vigor after a walk that led you to face a difficult problem? Indeed, this demonstrates how body, mind, and psyche interconnect.
Strength Doesn’t Get Built Overnight
Every January people commit to improving their health by going to the gym, starting an exercise program, losing weight. To improve their minds by reading more and developing a regular sleep routine. To relax more, they start a relaxation or meditation practice. If you lack character strength, discipline, and emotional regulation, your intentions will fail by March. It is easier to start where you are and make one minor change at a time.
If you haven’t been walking, fit in a short walk at a convenient time of day. See how you feel and keep at it. Consistency is the key to success. Every little walk builds strength. I had to rebuild my fitness after a full knee replacement. My mind and body crave walking, so it’s easy to get out the door.
To overcome stiffness and pain, and build up my leg strength again, I had to increase the distance incrementally, or I would experience a painful backlash. It took 6 months before I could walk my usual distances. My mood has improved, my thinking has improved, my sleep has improved, and my zest for life is back. I’m planning trips that need resilience. Here’s how strength can be rebuilt during older life stages.
We Are Told That If Strength Isn’t Immediate, It Isn’t Real
When you take that first walk; when you pick up that 2lb weight, when you hold your tongue in an argument, you don’t feel strong. But when your walk happens 4 times a week, or the weight you can pick up becomes an 8lb weight as you do your reps, you start feeling stronger. Walking away from abusive arguments makes you feel strong. Strength doesn’t happen at once; it grows quietly, when you persist, and it becomes real. Building strength in small increments builds or rebuilds character.
Strength Is in the Returning, in Taking Small Steps
Maybe it’s a brief phone call to an estranged friend or a family member that opens the door to building a renewed relationship. By returning over and over to a friend or family member, you build a strong relationship. It takes strength of character to take the first step.
To join a walking or hiking group takes inner strength. To join a book group, or other group, takes courage. Once you do it, you’ll find that the group energy will carry you. You will build not only physical or emotional strength, but you will build friendships that will strengthen your self-esteem. You will build a support system that will strengthen your daily functioning.
To meet people after relocating to an unfamiliar town, I became part of multiple hiking clubs. I started my own walking group as well. Within a year, I had a circle of friends I could relate to, share with, and who helped me solve problems as I navigated contractors, landscapers, and medical providers. Now I can help other newcomers by inviting them to my walk-and-talk group on Thursday mornings and referring them to our local hiking groups.
I fill a role in my community. All this builds strength. I have found other hikers who will challenge themselves, and I can continue my long-distance hiking in good company. My sense of vitality is high for my age.
Vitality Is a Core Strength
Upon waking, do you greet the new day with a smile? Are you able to extend your walk when you’ve taken a wrong turn on the trail? Do you have the energy to help a neighbor or friend? If you can say yes to these questions, you have vitality.
Walking maintains and builds vitality. You don’t gain vitality by doing reps in the gym – although that is a good thing to do to keep your physical strength. Vitality arises from physical, emotional, and mental balance. All the forms of strength work together to create vitality. Vitality is not dramatic; it is devoted to your well-being.
Vitality is the hum that fuels your life. It will surprise you and show up when you need it. I rely on my vigor for tough tasks, for occasional bursts of energy in routine living. I pay attention to having balance in my life so my vitality springs up again and again. Reboot your system and revitalize yourself through walking or hiking. But after a stressful period in your life, or when you’re recovering from an illness, rest will build strength and vitality.
Women past 60 seeking renewed energy plus a fresh path should start right where they are, incorporating small, manageable doses of the strength-building techniques discussed.
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How do you build your strength? Which area are you strongest in – or do you maintain a balance?
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