<p>I have a sedentary job, early 60s, with Gym hours dramatically dropping off after the kids spread their wings. My distance running and racing days have been over for over 30 years, so I thought of walking in our neighborhood, which has very light traffic and also very hilly. My phone has a “walking mate” app that counts how many steps you take during a day, which is about 5,000 to get through the day. I started with about 3-4,000 more if the weather is good, listening to an audiobook on my phone, and now I typically average about 6,000 extra steps in about 50 minutes after returning home from work, weather permitting. My questions - for someone like me, 5’9, 170 lbs: are there any long term risks to the knee or hips in doing 45-50 minutes of walking uphill/downhill every day over extended periods of times? Is just walking sufficient for the aerobic component of the physical activity needed, so I can focus only on weights/resistance machines during my less frequent sessions at the gym?</p>
<p>Make sure you have really good shoes for the walking. I would recommend Hokas. I’ve gotten a few walking co-workers in them and they are all raving. I like to get my heartrate higher than walking does (for me) but your hills may take care of that for you. IDad can give you some good advice on a well-rounded program. He gets his HR up with his weight routine, too, but many if us aren’t intense enough with the weights and body strength exercises. As many if us have learned with age (and from the great teachings on this thread) food management is a key component in weight management and health. </p>
<p>I’m not planning on doing a streak anytime soon- if ever. However, to train for distance races, once I can do that again, does require a certain mileage level which involves running several days in a row.<br>
It turns out that my daughter’s biking for her tri training has helped her running quite a bit. She had her best 11.2 mile extremely hilly training run ever on Friday. So- there is something to this cross-training stuff!</p>
<p>Dad<em>of</em>3, good for you for getting regular walks into your day. If you are just starting then walking 6000 steps 3-4 days a week is good but once you are fit, you should be able to do that every day, but taking a day or two off to do something else like golf, shop, yard work, could give your leg muscles a break. You are lucky you have hills so you get your heart rate up for free, and that is healthy for you, too.</p>
<p>Good walking shoes are important, too. You may not need Hoka’s if your gait doesn’t need additional support, but you may want to consider going to a running shoe place that specializes in fitting them. </p>
<p>Abasket, nice run! Congrats.</p>
<p>MOWC … I am going to tell your doctor that you are sneak-running. Be careful! I can tell by your posts and interests that you are going to push yourself hard once you get the go-ahead, so don’t be tempted to train too hard too soon. You had a very bad injury and you don’t want to be back in that spot again. </p>
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<p>I lost 90 pounds with walking on a hilly route as a major component of my weekly exercise. I absolutely think that walking can be (and probably should be) a foundation of fitness for us “middle aged folk”. Very low wear and tear on joints. Very low injury risk. My standard route has always been about 3 miles, roughly 45 minutes, give or take.</p>
<p>The challenge is that it is beneficial to get the heart rate up. Hills are perfect because they drive the heart rate up and then back down on the flat or downhill bits – so it’s organic interval training. The problem comes with improved fitness. You’ve got to find bigger hills and/or walk faster to get the same effect. One way is to alternate walking and jogging. I do a little bit of that, but I really don’t want to do much running. So, I found bigger hills – hiking in the mountains, which I try to do once a week for most of the year.</p>
<p>You can also check that elevated heart rate box with fast paced strength training circuits – lighter weights, more reps, little or no rest. I did one yesterday – a kettlebell circuit, 18 minutes, start to finish. Hit 90% of my max heart rate on the fourth and final 3 minute set.</p>
<p>The thing I like about walking is that it’s good exercise, fresh air, pretty relaxing with tunes or podcasts on an iPod, etc. I particularly like it in the winter as an antidote to cabin fever.</p>
<p>I haven’t been doing my neighborhood lap much recently. My priority is to get in three strength workouts a week in my basement home gym and one hke each week. So that’s four days. I have a self-imposed mandatory rest day once a week and I often need two if I’ve done a long hike. So that leaves time for just one or two quicky workouts – like the KB circuit I did yesterday. I’m getting plenty of walking on a 4 to 7 hour hike.</p>
<p>Hokas aren’t for support, but for cushioning. For a new exerciser, they really help with impact.</p>
<p>I really am going to be careful and not push my return to mileage. I am very afraid of my bone density issues and I respect this injury. </p>
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<p>It’s been obvious in the way you’ve dealt with this that you are taking it very seriously. I guess between the crutches and the daily injections, it would be hard not to. But, still, you’ve been a real trooper in accepting it and doing what you have to do to heal up.</p>
<p>Thanks, iDad. I’m seeing several older runners struggling with various things- one man has Graves Disease and has gone from setting state records (he’s now 72) to running 10 minute miles. We have to navigate carefully if we want to maintain an active lifestyle. It comes down to figuring out what’s important and managing risks.</p>
<p>MaineLonghorn, I have been walking 2-3 miles several days a week and my knees (which have always been finicky) have not given me trouble at all. It has been a pleasant surprise. Before the weight loss, they always gave me trouble. I also do weight training, but nothing as involved as idad or CrossFit. I do most of my mileage on a dreadmill, which is definitely not the most exciting thing in the world, but I am supervised in case anything happens. I also find it tough when the temps are above 80 – my circulatory system doesn’t do as well with heating/cooling as it used to. I tried to walk from downtown DC to the zoo on Friday afternoon and had to bail out – 83 degrees, sunny. Did 2 miles Saturday evening (75 degrees, cloudy) and had no problems.</p>
<p>I need to start food journaling again. Too many trips where I’m off my routine, too many slipups. Having S2 at home is hard – he makes amazing things every day and it’s so easy to take a couple of bites. It’s those 100-200 calories * 7 days /week that are nailing me. Had to revoke one of my 5 lb parties. </p>
<p>“My questions - for someone like me, 5’9, 170 lbs: are there any long term risks to the knee or hips in doing 45-50 minutes of walking uphill/downhill every day over extended periods of times?”</p>
<p>All I can say is that walking is what humans are designed for. Mr B is slightly taller and about the same weight. Even after his knee surgery, he can do such walking just fine. If you do not have any serious health conditions that can prevent you from exercising, this would be perfect for someone who wants to do some low impact aerobic exercise. I second MOfWC’s recommendation of Hokas.</p>
<p>Dad<em>of</em>3, as a general matter, it is recommended that you get 150 minutes/week of moderate cardio exercise (ex. 5x30 minutes) or 75 minutes/week of vigorous cardio (ex 3x25 minutes). Intensity levels can get dialed in using the “talk test” approach where at moderate intensities you can still speak in complete sentences of about 10 seconds duration and at more vigorous intensities you find it difficult to do so. In order to avoid injuries, particularly if you are going to be using hills to provide “intensity” to your walks, it’s important to make sure you don’t have any stability and mobility issues involving your feet/ankles and hips/lumbar region which can result in all sorts of postural and muscular compensations which could lead to injuries. You also need to be careful not to increase your duration or intensity too quickly to avoid overuse injuries that can compound themselves.</p>
<p>When you are in the gym, it will also be important for you to maintain balanced strength and flexibility among your hip flexors and erector spinae muscles and abs and hamstrings. This is important to help your hip girdle maintain a neutral position. You will also want to do exercises to strengthen and keep flexible all the musculature in your front, rear and lateral lower leg compartments so that you have good plantarflexion and dorsiflexion with your feet. Since you plan on being at the gym, you may want to seek the services of a trainer who can assist you in assessing your mobility and stability through your lower kinetic chain and in structuring a walking program and related exercises to accomplish your goals and avoid injuries.</p>
<p>A note on circuit training. A good way to develop muscular endurance but not great for cardiovascular conditioning. The duration of elevated heart rate is not long enough and the metabolic processes involved in resistance training are much different than those involved in cardio training.</p>
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<p>What do you specifically mean by cardiovascular conditioning? </p>
<p>I would probably agree with you if you mean cardiovascular conditioning as in endurance running, cycling, or swimming. However, from the standpoint of heart heath and improved odds of not keeling over from cardiovascular disease, I’m not sure I agree. It’s not clear that endurance training (as in marathon running) is beneficial to heart health. There is some suspicion that it may be detrimental.</p>
<p>One of the best correlations with surviving five years is a good recovery in 60 seconds from a high heart rate from all out exertion. Cycling the heart rate up and down is an effective way to improve that recovery. From this standpoint and for general health, I think that interval training (whether in the form of running sprints, exercise bike sprint intervals, or fast paced circuits) is probably the best bang for the buck and those work intervals can range from 10 seconds up to an absolute max of 4 minutes. If it’s longer than four minutes, it’s not a sprint interval! Actually, as intervals go, metabolic strength training circuits are among the longest. Not many people do 3 minute sprint intervals on the Airdyne!</p>
<p>From a fat loss standpoint, sprint intervals are the best bang for the buck as well. It appears that this kind of exercise is most beneficial in reducing insulin resistance.</p>
<p>dad of 3:</p>
<p>Thinking more about your specific question:</p>
<p>If it doesn’t hurt anywhere when you walk, then I would say that you can walk with close to zero risk of damage to joints (beyond twisting an ankle). If you feel pain (like sore knees walking uphill), then you are getting a signal that you are trying to do too much too soon or too fast and should back off. At least for me, the early little pains I felt (shin splints, knee discomfort walking up hill, etc.) cleared up and disappeared altogether as my fitness improved, but you don’t benefit from pushing through the pain.</p>
<p>Kudos Abasket!</p>
<p>MomWC, that is the funniest Golden story I’ve ever heard…though expect it gets funnier with distance and did not appear so at the time 
ya gotta hand it to WC…he has great taste in dogs I would love a Golden…they’re just so smart and entertaining. My friend whose MiniG I was dog sitting has now found me a breeder who claims her “comfort goldens” (cross bred to be smaller but still very Golden-esque") are “low to non allergenic” but I might be safer with a Goldendoodle. At some point I really am going to get a new flight of allergy testing to see where I’m at and start immunotherapy again.</p>
<p>Dad-of-Three, welcome! One way to get a better bang for your heart-rate buck when walking is to use walking poles (like Nordic ski poles.) They call it “exerstriding” if you want to look it up. It increases the heart rate, burns more calories, and engages the whole body better. I really toned up my sides/core using the poles on my daily hill treks, plus it kind of keeps you stable when you’re trucking it. </p>
<p>Years ago i was dx’d with something called facet joint syndrome in my back. Walking actually helps and was “prescribed” so my guess is that there are few contraindications with walking, even for people who require extremely low impact exercise ;)</p>
<p>kmc- Yeah, it wasn’t very funny at the time. We had a house full of animals and I had a very stressful job. I have a friend with a Comfort Golden and he is just precious. We are so used to our huge guy now, though, that we wouldn’t know what to do with a normal sized dog. I’ve been walking him a lot when it isn’t too hot for him- which is good for both of us.</p>
<p>Sabadog is a big guy - around 84 pounds (down from a high of 94) so next to him, Sabapup looks positively petite at around 55 pounds. She’s not a year old yet, but I don’t think she’ll end up much more than 60 pounds. Very strong though - walking them both is a good upper body workout! </p>
<p>Easy 3 miles this morning - wasn’t storming, not too humid. Have been doing better with the strength workouts. Today I have a visit with our hospital’s heart health coordinator - should be interesting. </p>
<p>Sabaray, I’m impressed and kind of jealous of all the support you are getting! From docs to trainers to a heart health coordinator - please share any tidbits of advice you get!</p>
<p>Yesterday at my race I stayed for the awards (I often run and don’t hang around). It made me smile to see and realize that there were runners 70+! Amazing! One guy was 79. Just really cool. I’m convinced that part of the reason people run/race is for the socialization - even though running is really a solitary sport, the camaraderie is there before, during and after the race. MOWC, I’m guessing you are really missing that as well since you truly have a community that you are involved in with regards to running. So I “get” that you will be cautious but anxious to get back in that routine. </p>
<p>Ive been walking, 2 or 3 miles at least every day,( along with the water aerobics, however most of it is with a dog, so the pace isn’t aerobic) but Ive also been taking my cane with me sometimes so I can whap cars that don’t notice I am in the crosswalk.
My route is fairly flat, but if I go another way, it would be quite steep. I need a combo.
I’ve also booked winter reservations in the Methow, so I am aiming to go xcountry skiing in five months.
Which I haven’t done for about 7 years, & unlike H & my youngest, I don’t go downhill.
So I need to step up my training.
They’ve changed the trails too, so not sure what to expect.</p>
<p>Abasket, joining the wellness center affiliated with the hospital was a good decision. I joined an organized program for an extra $50 - it’s really a weight loss challenge but we earn points by completing various workouts and learning more about nutrition. So you pay the $50 and get 5 workout sessions with a trainer, detailed weekly workouts and nutrition info, the heart health check if you want it, you name it. It’s a really good value and you all know how cheap I am! Today I am going to a water fitness class. Definitely out of my comfort zone. </p>
<p>I also have to say that I am saving my pennies for more Lulu shorts. They are awesome. </p>
<p>Which Lulu shorts did you like the best Sabaray??? When I get in the store I get all confused to what style I"ve seen mentioned here! </p>