If you’re thinking about starting a walking regimen, our fitness tips and walking strategies will help you make the most of it. For people of any age with arthritis, walking is especially good medicine. It strengthens muscles, which helps shift pressure from joints and reduce pain. And repeated walking compresses and releases the cartilage in your knees, helping circulate synovial fluid that brings oxygen and nourishes your joints. When joints don't get this nourishment, they deteriorate faster.
But despite these benefits, it's not easy to keep walking, day in and day out. To improve your chances of success, try these five walking strategies.
1. Find a buddy.
One of the best ways to start and maintain a regular walking program is to find a friend committed to walking with you. For Shelly Bay, of Los Angeles, it’s her husband, Greg. The two walk in their neighborhood late at night. “Depending upon my health and the weather, we typically walk about three nights a week,” says Shelly, who has psoriatic arthritis.
Recruiting a walking buddy may especially help if you’re a senior. In a study published last year in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, older adults said they preferred exercising with peers to exercising by themselves. But your walking companion doesn’t have to be someone your own age – or even human, says Diane Whaley, PhD, professor of sport and exercise psychology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, whose favorite walking partner is her dog. “I walk my dog every day – it not only makes the walk more pleasant, but it keeps me walking when I might not otherwise.”
Walking with a friend, human or canine, is beneficial for a number of reasons, says Whaley. “It makes you feel more safe and secure. It also makes you accountable to another. You know that if you don’t go, you’re letting someone else down.”
• Don’t have a dog? Ask to “borrow” your neighbor’s friendly pooch. Fido will be thrilled to get an extra walk every day.
• Join a walking club. Call your local YMCA or fitness center, or search the American Volkssport Association site.
• Call an old friend. Been meaning to catch up, but haven’t had time? Renew your acquaintance on foot.
• Make it a date. Share some quality time with your spouse on “date walks.”
2. Do Something Different
If you stride the same block every day, your routine can get old fast. To make walking more pleasurable, find ways to make it different and interesting.
A key walking fitness tip is to vary your route, a technique that works well for Bay and her husband. “One of our routes is purely residential; another is residential until we reach the local elementary school, where we loop around the school a few times,” she says. “And when a new high-rise is being built nearby, we walk to it to see how things are coming along.”
The Bays also sometimes walk in other areas, such as a friend’s neighborhood after a visit, or they walk off dinner around a restaurant if the neighborhood feels safe enough.
Even the same route can be interesting with a little attention and creativity. Count the cats or squirrels in your neighbors’ yards. Be aware of the clouds in the sky, the movement of the trees in the breeze, the feeling of the sun on your skin. “If you pay attention to your surroundings, your walk will go faster,” says Whaley.
• Go the scenic route. Once a week, take a walk in a park, along a lake, at the beach or in the woods.
Head for the track. If you usually walk in your neighborhood, go to a school and do laps around the track.
• Pretend you’re a tourist, and take a self-guided walking tour of your town.
• Walk wherever you are. Do laps around the playing field during your kids’ baseball games, around the block while waiting for a table at a restaurant or around the mall while waiting for your spouse to finish shopping.
3. Get Good Shoes
A pair of shoes is virtually the only equipment you need for walking, so it’s important to choose the right pair, says Nicholas Abidi, MD, an orthopedic surgeon from Santa Cruz, California. In general, the best shoes – whether dress, casual or athletic – have deep and wide lasts (shoe forms) and are made of cloth or smooth leather, without tight seams that rub the skin.
For walking, he recommends a good-quality running shoe, such as New Balance, Asics GEL or Adidas; or New Balance walking shoes, which come in different widths. (You can walk in running shoes, but you shouldn’t run in walking shoes.) Beyond that, the right pair will vary somewhat, depending upon your specific problem:
Trouble keeping your balance: Try shoes without thick treads, which can stick and cause falls.
Bunions: Look for roomy shoes without seams that cut across bunions. Women who have trouble finding wide enough shoes may want to try men’s athletic shoes.
Weak ankles: Try high-top athletic shoes.
Ankle arthritis or fusion: Look for shoes with rocker bottoms and a little heel lift to take up loss of motion in the ankle.
If you have knee osteoarthritis (OA), a new study suggests shoes that allow more natural foot motion and flexibility may be best. They reduce knee loading – the load or stress placed on the knee when walking – which plays an important role in the progression of knee OA. “Results from this study indicate that flat, flexible shoes provide the greatest degree of benefit in terms of knee loading,” says Najia Shakoor, MD, a rheumatologist at Rush Medical College in Chicago and an investigator in the study. However, she also notes that you have to take into account what your feet may need.
If you need help finding the right shoe, Dr. Abidi recommends visiting a pedorthist – a specialist in using shoes and shoe modifications to solve problems related to the foot and lower limbs. If you find a shoe that works, buy an extra pair, and alternate between them daily.
