I am not the kind of guy that likes to wake up extra early for mundane routines. If I can make teeth brushing, showering, and other stuff done faster, the clinically approved way, I will. Too bad I have not found a way. Therefore, for this lack of planning, I will have to make it up with a sense of urgency getting to work. However, since this senseless planning has no room for passivity, you would think I’m that guy gunning out onto the road racing the world trying to beat traffic with a baseball bat readily equipped in case of hostility… I’m just kidding. I don’t really drive to work! Fuel prices are cancer where I’m at. Public transportation is an option but there’s too many people and I can’t tell the bus driver to floor it. So I walk alone to work and I have to walk fast! It’s a 2.5mile (4 kilometer) walk which should normally take about 45 minutes to make it. On some days, if I, for some reason, need my teeth extra clean, I can make it there in 30-35 minutes. All this to avoid being around so many people, is it worth it? Yep. After the first year, I’ve noticed an apparent change in my physicality’s. I am a near six foot guy, with weight ranging from 165-175 for reference. Many of those stubborn fat that wouldn’t go away, in places socially undesirable, went away. While I have always been an advocate for walking alone everywhere you go while you can, I had never been more consistent than that year. I truly believe walking as an exercise is simple yet hard to master.

Benefits of walking

Everything in this very civilization was built in steps. As people, one of the first thing we learn is walking step by step. The faster one can walk, the faster that person can get to the next task in sequence. Building anything isn’t easy. It take’s a lot of time and dedication. For humans, our first mode of transportation and most effective as well as efficient usage of our limbs is walking with our legs. This is nature’s calling for strong muscles to be build around the legs and buttocks. Maybe one day when automation is so deep, we can have some long living assistances carrying us from bed to the toilet for the lack of developing our legs. But for now, building these strong muscles on our legs does have its benefits. Because we are so accustomed to using these muscles all the time, they are easy to train for longer duration exercises. The quads are one of the largest muscles in our body. More muscles means more calories burning when we are not moving. Walking will help build this group up for more muscles and density. Easy win here.

As busy as we are throughout out the day, there just aren’t time for exercising. Walking to work is the perfect exercise for me. It is low maintenance and can be done outside of your house if you don’t care. And compare to other high intensity exercises, this one doesn’t consume much mental energy. Try thinking of a challenging problem and solving it while running; it’s near impossible. And actually, walking allows critical thinking to share space and time together with exercising. Many times while walking, I have thought of problems through, and much of it being typical life problems. If showering is to generating creative ideas, then walking is to problem solving. Yesterday, I wrote about How much time do you really spend on yourself? Walking in peace is actually a great way to spend time with yourself. The more you walk, the more you explore. This is a win-win exercise.