- Move to Improve by Drew Howerton
- Posts
- 🤫 Silent Walking
Good morning! Don’t wake me up when September ends. I’m not sleeping through this month! Cooling weather (🤞), changing leaves, fall semester rhythms. It’s a great time of transition into the crazy holiday-filled sprint at the end of the year. Slow down and don’t let it pass you by.
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Silent Walking
Sometimes all you need is a 15 minute device-less walk to reset.
I was inspired by this article from the Today Show to give it a try. It’s apparently a TikTok trend, which… what isn’t these days?
I’m the type of walker who’s always walking with purpose. Multiple purposes, usually. Low intensity exercise, getting through a podcast on 1.5x speed, playing Pokemon GO, and catching up on messages, to name a few (often simultaneously). I realized that I rarely walk without technology in my ears and hands and on my wrist, and it made me wonder what I’m missing.
My daily walks are typically through the same neighborhood, so I’d say I’ve gotten pretty used to the surroundings. I could walk it all with my head down at this point—and sadly I sometimes do. But some of my favorite walks have been when the purpose is to take in the nature around me.
What’s silent walking? Also called “walking meditation,” it’s about removing distractions and going for a walk, preferably in nature, to clear your mind.
While most of my walks are usually productive in some sense, maybe I needed to let go of that goal and walk for another purpose: restoration. A silent walk—no talking, no pets, no podcasts or music—allows for just that.
Walking without my phone—or any other distractions
Though I kept my Fitbit on, it only records steps and biometric data and doesn’t receive notifications. No headphones in—just the sounds of life around me. Funny enough, after the first few minutes, I couldn’t stop thinking about texting my friends to tell them how great this silent walk was going.
I typically think, learn, or process things on walks, but this one really allowed my thoughts to just flow. As the article described, I was in a sort of meditative state, acknowledging and accepting thoughts, thinking through them as needed, and letting my brain train flow naturally and unobstructed.
It was clarifying. It was refreshing. It was relaxing. It was enough to want to do it again, and that’s a win.
My friends over at Arnold’s Pump Club also recently wrote about walking; yet another study has shown that increasing daily steps leads to better health. Read what they summarized below:
What if we told you one behavior could help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, and all-cause death? And no, we’re not talking about lifting weights (although that would also be true).
We’re talking about walking. Yet another study suggested that the number of steps you need to take to improve your health and prolong your life is surprisingly doable.
The latest research reviewed 17 different studies and more than 225,000 people. Everyone loves talking about the 10,000-step rule (a made-up number), but the benefits of walking start with minimal effort. The researchers found that every 500 steps you take is associated with a 7 percent decreased risk of death from cardiovascular disease. And for every 1,000 steps, you experience a 15 percent reduction in all-cause death, with benefits starting as low as 2,500 steps per day.
You see a significant jump in health protection from 4,000 to 5,000 steps per day, with more benefits extending up to 8,000 steps per day and beyond.
If getting enough steps is difficult, add 500 steps per day. It can be as simple as setting a calendar reminder and going for a 5 to 10-minute walk. Do it repeatedly, and then add a second walking break. In no time, you’ll easily be hitting the minimums you need to support your health.
Walking just keeps stacking up Ws. The world’s simplest exercise has more trophies on its shelf than Messi. 🏆️
On your next walking break, leave your phone at home or at your desk. It’s highly unlikely that anything will happen in 15 minutes that you can’t handle when you get back. Stay silent, allow your thoughts to flow freely, listen to the nature, people, and modern life around you. You may not catch any Pokemon, but you just may catch the silent walking bug.
âś… Take Action
Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.
Level 1: Go for just a 5 to 10-minute silent walk this week.
Level 2: Aim to increase your daily steps by 500 per week over the next month, and see what benefits you observe.
Level 3: Go for a 10+ minute walk after every meal, and make at least one of them silent.
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✍️ Drew's Picks:
Read: The article on silent walking, if you didn’t click it at the beginning of the article you silly goose!
Read: “Obesity Alters the Muscle Protein Synthetic Response to Nutrition and Exercise.” I meant to share this in last week’s newsletter. It’s another scientific article about how difficult it is to overcome the inertia of obesity. When you do, it’s no small feat! Have grace.
Hope it cools down enough for you to take semi-comfortable walks outside! If you enjoyed this newsletter, be sure to share with a friend and ask them to sign up. A moving world is a healthier world!
Keep moving,
Drew
The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).