Walking

Next month in the UK is National Walking Month and Living Streets UK are encouraging people to walk to work or to school.

Around 39% of UK adults – that’s around 20 million people – are failing to meet Government recommendations for physical activity ¹

Around 11.8million women across the UK are insufficiently active, compared to around 8.3million men ¹
Physical inactivity has a significant financial burden on the UK healthcare service, with the direct financial cost estimated to be as high as £1.2billion each year ^1,3
The UK analysis of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study estimated that physical inactivity contributes to almost one in ten premature deaths from coronary heart disease, and one in six deaths from any cause.²

How much should we be walking?

NHS recommends 150 mins of physical activity for 19-64 year olds ⁴
26% of UK adults get less than 30 mins of physical activity per week ⁵

Benefits of walking

Lowers stress levels
Boosts energy
Improves our memory
Boosts attention
Reduced blood pressure ⁶which can has been shown to reduce coronary heart disease risk by 6% and stroke and Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIA)by 15% ⁷
Reduces heart rate ⁶
Improves V02 Max ⁶
Reduces risk of disease

Benefits of walking for Low Back Pain (LBP):

A study that looked at data from 2010 – 2015 showed that longer walking duration was associated with a lower risk of LBP. ⁹
Regular walking with a longer duration for more than 3days/week is significantly associated with a lower risk of LBP in the general population aged over 50 years.⁹

A meta analysis that looked at studies from 1980-2017 concluded that evidence suggests that walking in patients with chronic LBP was as effective as other non-pharmacological interventions in reducing pain and disability in both short- and intermediate-term follow ups.¹⁰

Tips and Advice:

Make sure you have appropriate, comfortable footwear and socks
Do a short warm up
Gradually increase the distance and intensity
Walking with someone or in a group can help encourage people to stick to regular walking
Use walking poles if needed particularly for more challenging, uphill walks
Be prepared for your walk – wear appropriate clothing to keep warm/cool
Stay hydrated
Make sure that you are strong enough to match the demand of the walk. Choosing a very difficult uphill walk if you are not a regular walker may increase your chance of injury.
Get on top of niggles to prevent them becoming a problem by booking in to see your physiotherapist so they can keep you walking!

Warm up

By warming up you are doing more than just stretching the muscle fibres and getting the blood flowing, you are also preparing for the activity you are about to do by preparing the connection between your brain and your muscles. This will reduce your chance of injury. Rather than doing random exercises try to focus on exercises that will relate to what you will be doing while walking.

You don’t want to exhaust yourself with the warm up so keep it under 10 minutes. Examples of exercises that you can do as part of the warm up:

Heel walks
Toe walks
Walking Knee Hugs / Knee to Chest Walks
Calf Walkouts
Body weight Squats
Standing Crab Walks

If you are unsure of any of the above please make an appointment to see a physio who can safely guide you through the exercises.

What can physio do to help?

At Physio On The Green we provide gait analysis, where we can video you walking and analyse your gait allowing us to identify if there are areas we need to work on.
We can do a foot and ankle assessment and recommend the type of footwear best suited to you.
If you have pain we can assess and treat you to get you back walking.
We can provide you with a strength program to decrease pain and improve your tolerance for longer or more challenging walks.
We are also lucky to work with Maddie Tait, a sports podiatrist, who can prescribe and make custom orthotics if needed and provide detailed assessment and treatment of foot and ankle issues.

Apps that can help you track and progress your walking:

The NHS recommends the following apps:

Active 10 App
Couch to 5k
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/get-active

References:

Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behaviour Report, British Heart Foundation, 2017
UK Chief Medical Officers’ Guidelines 2011 Start Active, Stay Active
BHF analysis of The Lancet, The economic burden of physical inactivity: global analysis
Source: NHS physical activity guidelines, 2018
NHS Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, 2017
Hanson S, Jones AIs there evidence that walking groups have health benefits? A systematic review and meta-analysis British Journal of Sports Medicine 2015;49:710-715
Cook NR, Cohen J, Hebert PR, et al. Implications of small reductions in diastolic blood pressure for primary prevention. Arch Intern Med 1995;155:701
Park SM, Kim GU, Kim HJ, Kim H, Chang BS, Lee CK, Yeom JS. Walking more than 90minutes/week was associated with a lower risk of self-reported low back pain in persons over 50years of age: a cross-sectional study using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. The Spine Journal 2019; Vol 19 (5): 846-852
Sitthipornvorakul E, Klinsophon T, Sihawong R, Janwantanakul P. The effects of walking intervention in patients with chronic low back pain: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Musculoskeletal Science and Practice, 2018; Vol 34: 38-46