Small Steps to Health

Walking as Exercise and Possible Injuries

October 6th, 2008 by asithi · 4 Comments

Tagged Exercise Injuries, Fitness, exercise injury, Fitness

Photo by:  Hamed Saber

Walking is one of the nearly one of the most pain-free ways to fit in exercise. Pretty much anyone of any age can do it. Besides the fact that it can improve your health and improve your mood, it is convenient, good on the joints, and requires only a good pair of shoes.

Walking is my favorite exercise. For about two years when I was recovering from my car accident, it was the only form of exercise that my body can tolerate. Even now, on days when my back ache, I prefer to walk. Stretching is great, but I prefer to move whenever possible.

This post will discuss some strategies to help you get the most out of your walks and some common injuries associated with walking for exercise.

1. Take small steps

Most people get excited about exercising and go too far, too fast. Just because you are “only walking” does not mean that you do not have to build up to it gradually. In general, most of us only average 4,000-5,000 steps a day. That is only around 1.5 - 2 miles the entire day! And at any given time, we probably walk 5-10 minutes at most. Whereas when you walk for exercise, we are aiming for a good 30-60 minutes.

A good walking plan should look something like this:

Week 1: beginners – 15 minutes a day, veterans - 30 minutes or more a day

Week 2: beginners – 20 minutes a day, veterans – 40 minutes or more a day

Week 3: beginners – 25 minutes a day, veterans – 50 minutes or more a day

Week 4: beginners – 30 minutes a day, veterans – 60 minutes or more a day.

You are a beginner if you do not walk regularly or rarely walk for more than 15 minutes at a time. You are a veteran if you walk regularly for at least 25 minutes at a time.

To get the best results, try to walk every day. If you skip a day, do not walk twice as fast or twice as long in order to “catch up.”

Aim for a moderate pace. On a scale from 1 – 10, with 10 being exhaustion, aim for a 6 or 7. You should break a sweat and breath a little harder than normal, but still be able to hold a conversation.

2. Try using a pedometer

Studies show that sedentary people who wear a pedometer and have a daily step goal become more active throughout the day. I used a Omron pedometer daily for motivation. It is satisfying to see my steps ticking away. Here is my previous post on my pedometer experience.

The best use of a pedometer is to establish your baseline by walking normally for the first 3 days to see how many steps you get. Then set a small goal of adding an extra 500 steps each day. For example, if your baseline is 4,000 steps per day. Then your goal for the first week is 4,500 steps per day. On the second week, your goal would be 5,000 steps per day. On the 3^rd week, your goal would be 5,500 steps per day. Ultimately, you want to be able to squeeze in 10,000 steps per day.

3. Use intervals to burn more calories when walking

So you made it to 10,000 steps per day. But if you always do the same walking workout, now is the time to increase your intensity to continue to see improvements. You can either add intensity by walking further (more time exercising) or by walking faster at intervals.

Since I am only willing to set aside 1 hour for exercise, I rather work on walking intervals than to try to find more time to walk further. Prevention magazine has a good article on increasing your walking intensity.

4. Fit walking into the busiest day

The main reason given by most people for not exercising is because of a lack of time. Start thinking about exercise like the way you do with substituting low-fat for high fat food. Figure out where you can substitute inactivity with activity throughout your day. Any walking is better than none. The key to success with a pedometer is to look for opportunities to be active that are not necessarily planned or structured.

At a game for your kids? Never sit and watch. Start doing laps around the field to give yourself a workout while you are watching the game.

Start thinking of exercise in 5-10 minute blocks. We can all squeeze in 10 minutes to do some walking! As I mentioned in a previous post, divide and conquer your workout.

Do not let walking injuries derail you from your fitness and weight loss goals. Though walking is the easiest form of exercise, it is still possible for aggravate old injuries or develop new ones when you have not been exercising regularly. Here are the most common walking injuries:

Symptom: tenderness on your heel or anywhere on the bottom of your foot

Possible problem: plantar fasciitis

The plantar fasciitis is the band of tissue running from your heel bone to the ball of your foot. Walkers can overwork this area from pounding concrete pavement with hard shoes (which offer very little shock absorption). Inflammation can also result from any changes in your normal walking routine, so gradually increase your intensity. People with high arches or who pronate excessively are more likely to develop this problem.

You know you have plantar fasciitis if you feel pain in your heel or arch first thing in the morning since the tissue stiffens during the night. This problem can develop into a heel spur if left untreated. Here is a good video clip on youtube for plantar fasciitis stretch.

Symptom: pain in the back of your heel and lower calf

Possible problem: Achilles tendinitis

The Achilles tendon connects the calf muscle to the heel. Repeated flexing of the foot when walking up and down steep hillside or uneven terrain can strain this tendon. For walkers, it is most likely due to too much walking without gradual buildup.

For mild cases, avoid hills and reduce your mileage. Try substituting with some other form of exercises that do not aggravate the pain. You might want to consider stretching and icing the calf 3-4 times a day until the problem goes away. The towel under the heel for this calf stretch on youtube is a nice idea.

Symptom: stiffness or soreness in your shins

Possible problem: shin splints

Your shins bear up to 6 times your weight while exercising. You develop a shin splint when the stronger calf muscles repeatedly pulling on the weaker muscles near the shin.

Cut back on your walking to give your tissues time to heal. You might want to consider ibuprofen, stretching, and icing to help reduce the swelling and relieve the pain. You might also want to strengthen the muscles in the front of the leg (anterior tibialis) to help prevent a reoccurrence. Here are some great calf and shin stretches on youtube.

Symptom: soreness or swelling on the sides of your toes

Possible problem: ingrown toenails

Tender toes can develop when the corners or sides of your toenails grow sideways, putting pressure on surrounding soft tissues. You are more likely to develop ingrown toenails if your shoes are too small or too tight.

I always buy my workout shoes half a size larger. This leaves wiggle room in my shoes since feet tend to swell up during exercise. Also remember to cut toenails straight across instead of rounding the corners.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

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