In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration

by Shane O'Mara

marked difference to the structure and function of the brain. Aerobic exercise facilitates the brain in populating one particular region, critical to learning and memory, with new brain cells. Moreover, aerobic exercise supports the widespread production of key molecules that act to keep the brain in good working condition. Running as an aerobic exercise is a powerful method of inducing these changes, but running comes with disadvantages (special shoes, preparation, changing clothing, showering). More than these small inconveniences, the risk of injury rises with the distance run, whereas injury risk stays approximately the same with walking, irrespective of distance walked.29 One small-scale study concludes there is lowered injury risk for walkers compared with joggers.30 To get the maximum health benefits from walking, speed should be consistently high over a reasonable distance – say consistently over 5 or 5.5. kph, sustained for at least thirty minutes, at least four or five times per week.31 Walking offers the supreme advantage of needing nothing more than a decent pair of shoes, perhaps a raincoat, and little else. If undertaken in regular doses during the day, it provides the small, cumulative and significant positive changes for lung, heart and especially brain health. Brain health here is to be understood in its most general sense. Just as the purpose of the heart is to pump blood, and the purpose of the lungs is to allow respiration, the purpose of the brain is t...