Many of us have long dismissed this gentle, approachable activity for more adrenaline-pumping forms of exercise. We've been missing out—big-time.
Until very recently, the idea of going for a walk for fun never crossed my mind. I preferred more heart-rate-boosting, woo!-inducing forms of exercise; my idea of a good time included sailing off lippy kickers on my mountain bike or floating through fresh powder on skis. I just didn’t have much use for walking when I didn’t have to. Walking wasn’t going to get me ripped. Walking wasn’t shredding. Walking was good for digestion and something nice I did with my aging parents. Walking too far made my feet swell and my lower back ache. Walking was boring.
But like many of us this spring, I started doing a lot of things that were out of character. I stopped drinking. I started baking bread. I planted flowers and succulents and somehow kept them alive. I played board games. And I started going on long walks.
I could blame the baking, the gardening, the board games, and the teetotalism on the new restrictions caused by the novel coronavirus. I joked that I was playing quarantine bingo, systematically ticking off every trope on my Instagram feed. But the seed for the walking was planted well before the pandemic.
-------------------------------- We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb
Bazootiehead-in-training
Posts: 37873 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
I prefer to walk somewhere like the nearby Botanical Gardens, but haven't since COVID (first it was closed, now although it's open, I'm avoiding it because the paths and trails are too narrow).
Walking around our neighborhood can be too hot because it's on concrete and not consistent share. But I can walk all around our house, basically walk the perimeter of the property, and it's mostly on grass, a lot of shade. So I've been doing that a lot recently.
If it's raining or too hot, I walk (march in place) in the basement. But I much prefer to be outside.
