Voices Anand Neelakantan S Vaidhyasubramaniam Ravi Shankar Preeti Shenoy Dinesh Singh Mata Amritanandamayi MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment NEW DELHI September 1 2024 SUNDAY PAGES 12 The WALKING MYTHS BUSTED Walking is for people who can’t run Walking causes people to break a sweat, and improves cardiovascular fitness and endurance. A study found regular walkers have lower rates of hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes Right Step Walking isn’t an effective exercise for weight loss When walking for weight loss, try intermittent speed walking at a slow to moderate pace and decreasing the intervals: walk fast for 30 seconds and return to regular pace for four minutes. As new studies point to the many benefits of the humble walk, people are stepping up and stepping out. Walking has never been more ‘in’ T Weight and walk By iram ARA IBRAHIM walking lets you tackle the sweet tooth, says a 2011 research published in Appetite by the University of Exeter. Use the feet for 15 minutes and the urge to gorge on a wide variety of sugary snacks vanishes. The benefits of the humble walk are popping up along the path with surprises galore. A 2017 study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine says that breast cancer risk comes down with walking. According to this research, women who walked at least seven or more hours every week had a significantly lower risk of breast cancer than those Walking is too mild to need drinking water Drink a large glass of water about two hours before you start walking. Drinking three to six ounces of water per mile avoids dehydration You only benefit during the time you are walking Walking contributes to fitness levels and improves balance and coordination, and strengthens bones and muscles RUCKING T he Early Man didn’t walk so that the Modern Man would someday become a couch potato. Nor did the Modern Man buy a treadmill for a clothes’ hanger. That life has become sedentary is a decades-old grouse. The Chaturvedis, Menons, Ahmads and Basus lean back as the white-capped chauffeur takes them from home to Point B-oardroom. The Modern Man has turned to the Early Man to learn stay-fit tricks. A 2023 research by Harvard Health Publishing claims that walking brings in a host of health benefits. Walking as a daily habit will counter the genes that promote an increase in body weight. Researchers have dug into as many as 32 obesity-promoting genes in a sample size of over 12,000. They come up with the observation that in those who took a brisk walk for an hour every day these genes could only do , half the damage. The world is walking their talk. Italy’s famed walking route reopened after more than a decade on July 27 this year. Hailed as the most romantic walk in the world, the Via dell’Amore or ‘Path of Love’ had closed in 2012 after a landslide injured some tourists; it has been extensively renovated. If love is sweet, believe it or balk, Repeat four to five times with a cool down in the end. Varying walking speed burns up to 20 per cent more calories who walked only three hours or less during that time. It’s free, easy and can be done anywhere. It even gives extra protection from cold and flu. A survey published in , PLOS Medicine, of about 4,000 participants in the Indian Migration Study noted people who walk or cycle to work—12.5 per cent walk to work in urban areas—are less likely to be overweight or obese, or get diabetes and high blood pressure. Now, walkers are innovating so that the boring stroll becomes more than passing the usual sites or the monotony of the treadmill. he easiest way to get some exercise is to start walking. This is the textbook advice of many fitness experts to beginners who have a hard time building a fitness regimen. But what if one wants to maximise one’s efforts in a short period of time? The solution is ‘rucking’—it takes walking a notch higher by adding a little extra weight to the back. In fitness terminology rucking is , categorised as a low-impact exercise inspired by military training regimens— the word ‘ruck’ comes from rucksack, a bag with shoulder straps that’s carried on the back. Research suggests that this practice has its origin in the 20th century when soldiers would carry their supplies in a backpack. Delhi-based fitness trainer Rituraj Pandey 33, says, “Your legs, stomach and , arms will have tighter muscles. It is good to start with one to two sessions per week, aiming to eventually build up to the recommended activity per week. In case of elders, it is especially important to choose a backpack or rucksack with adequate padding and proper weight distribution.” Turn to page 2