Walking - Free, easy, and therefore, underrated?

 

Out of I don't know where, I recently started walking. Recently means July 2025, so about 6 months ago. I got an ad-loaded free pedometer app on my phone, a new pair of cheap sneakers, and that was basically it.

One of the possible sources of this new habit of mine may be my reading of the excellent book "Exercised" by David Lieberman. One of the sentences in that book struck a chord with me. 

"If you are a typical person who barely exercises, it would take you just an hour or two of walking per day to be as physically active as a hunter-gatherer."

I remember reading this and my immediate thought was - "That's it ?" I can be Tarzan (well, not Tarzan, but you get my gist) just by an hour or so of WALKING? I thought I will have to chase and kill a gazelle with my bare hands every week to qualify for that! Sign me up!

I should post a detailed book review/summary of it here soon, it's a very funny and well-written book.

I feel a general sense of "good health" now. My skin looks better, I feel much better, and I think I am addicted to walking now. If I miss a day, I get withdrawal symptoms and I feel crappy almost the entire day.

I do a morning walk most days and I have found it gives a nice sense of accomplishment right as the day starts.

The park where I walk everyday.

Walking is great as I can kill two birds with one stone. I love listening to audiobooks and podcasts and the daily walk gives me a very nice, 1 hour of listening everyday. I usually finish a book in around 10 days. With that, I should be able to finish at least 20-25 books in an year. I have an audible subscription to go with that, and it comes with tons of free books on top of my 12 that come as credits during an year.

I don't feel sluggish in the afternoon. Earlier I used to sleep in the afternoon on a pretty regular basis. However, after I started walking, I have found that my energy levels remain quite high throughout the day.

My grandfathers on both the father's and mother's side (Dadaji and Nanaji in Hindi/Punjabi) were great walkers and walked very long distances on a daily basis. I think part of my inclination comes from that.

I hope to keep up this practice. I have a feeling that walking is severely underrated as there is not a lot of money to be made with the advice to just walk. It definitely beats doing nothing. Also, walking is nowhere as difficult as any of the exercises listed in any exercise manual or strength-training program. Not everyone can or should deadlift a heavy weight, but most folks can walk.

Also, walking is mostly risk-free. I did have a lot of pain in the beginning, and some days it was hard for me to get out of bed as my feet were killing me, but I rammed through those days and now walking is rarely if ever painful. I think it was due to poor technique and/or my weight. 

One of the rules that I live by is that except actual rocket science, things are quite simple and not rocket science. Businesses and marketers/scammers have a tendency to make things overly complicated, and we follow their advice to our peril. Most, if not all, things are quite simple. Not easy, but simple.