21 Walking Tips | Menopause Q and A Video

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25mg of CBD and 25mg CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. I am frankly so relaxed today, and my friends, while I'm recording, it's Monday. It's Monday, and I must say it's 6:45, and although I love you and I love doing these podcasts, notice I'm still working. So I may be trying to get ahead of the curve or not so that I don't have to work so much when I have a new puppy. But that's another topic. See how I worked that in? All right. Today, I cannot wait to get started on this, actually. And thank you. So there are a lot of podcasts when I'm doing a solo topic in response to something I keep getting asked over and over by our community members. That might be those of you who are in the Flipping 50 Insiders group. It's a private group, but yet it's open to the public. You don't have to do anything except give us the secret handshake to get in and we allow you in. And it could be from our community of email subscribers. It could be from somebody messaging me back and answering a question in my stories in Instagram. But you have asked these questions. So very recently, our most recent podcast, in fact, at Flipping 50 was about walking. And it was about yummy, delicious benefits of just walking. Just— that's it. So there was a little about walking short, there's a little about walking longer, and there's a little bit about just getting in steps. So if you're not intentionally walking but you're on your feet and moving throughout the day, it all counts. And I told you in that podcast just how much it counts. This week I also released a video on my YouTube channel. If you're not there and want to be. Lots of juicy advice and input there too. And that is Flipping 50 TV. So is Instagram, so is Facebook if you wanna follow. But I released a podcast about walking, things like arm swing, things like why you might be tight in your shoulders or your upper back or neck when you're walking or after you've gone on a walk, why you might notice that your hips are stiff, what you can do about that if you feel like you're tight after walking when, geez, you've just exercised and you haven't really worked that hard. All that is in the YouTube video. But today, these are your questions. This episode of Walking Tips is purely responses to our community's questions, and wow, did you have a lot of them. I was not expecting, not expecting to do another episode, and I anticipate there may still be another one. So if you're still like wanting points of clarification from something I say today reach out. You know, you can comment at the bottom of show notes, but you can just reach me and find me in DM— that's a direct message, by the way— on Instagram if you want to do that and ask a follow-up question. So please realize I can't take a lot of time to personally respond to everybody. I do often, honestly, so I try to, but it gets a little overwhelming at times, so I can't always do that. But that's why I wanted to make sure I got this roundup in. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address top struggles and concerns, but most of all hope to inspire you that if you're a woman in midlife and beyond and you want to do it better, stronger, happier than we've seen any other generation do it before, you are in the right place, my friend. I share what to eat, how to move, and how to change your mindset so that you can have the energy and vitality that you want, need, and deserve. So in case you landed here first, you may want to go back one episode and listen to the podcast I release about all the benefits of walking. That is full, packed full of research statistics that will blow you away, or at least blow you out the door and on a walk. And by the way, if you're listening and it is your habit to listen and walk, go you. All right, number 1: how fast should you walk to make it cardio? This is a completely insane question for me to answer. It's completely unique to each individual. So your heart rate and breathlessness, or your ability to talk at any speed, will be different than mine or than any other individuals. So it's perhaps better to identify the goal. Your heart benefits from walking, period. Whether it's slow, slower, faster, your heart will benefit. So I want you to understand, but quote unquote cardio is— it means something different to each of us. Exercise intensity measured in labs we call METs, metabolic equivalents. That's how we measure the intensity of any movement. Like sitting on the couch or at rest is very low in terms of MET level, but your MET level walking is far higher than your MET level at rest. So you're already, quote unquote, cardiovascular system is working If you go faster, is it working harder? Certainly it is, right? So I can't really explain or, or give you a clear one-way answer on this question because there's a lot of latitude where I could go depending on what your personal definition of cardio is. So it's lower level if you are just walking, right? Unless you push the pace so it's more moderate to vigorous, or it's literally high-intensity interval training. You can make walking that for a short burst. And all of that falls under the umbrella of cardio. So yes, you can make anything cardio. There are cardiovascular benefits, heart health benefits that happen at slower paces. Yet we do know that moderate to vigorous intensities— so if you're looking for what is moderate to vigorous intensity, that would be where You couldn't sustain it all day. You're beginning to breathe harder. You are talking, but you're talking between breaths. You're more curious, more anxious to ask a question of a partner if you're walking with them than you are to have to give your answer because you're not really talking in these full complete sentences the way we are when we're at rest. So I hope that makes a little bit more clarity. So cardio, if you want that real fitness for cardio effect, or cardio for fitness effect, you want that at least 70 or 80, or, you know, in 80 to 90%. That's where we're getting totally out of breath. You're only going to be able to sustain it for a very short period of time. Our next question: Is walking just as effective as jogging or running? Again, the answer here is it depends. So it means Effective for what? I have to ask. It's not the same cardiovascular stress at all. So we're not actually improving your cardiovascular fitness in the same way. It takes longer to achieve the equivalent in energy expenditure or distance, right? So you will either have to go further or farther or both in walking than you would in running for the same comparable energy expenditure. It is lower impact, which could be good unless you're training for impact and/or you need it. So the question, is it just as effective as running or jogging? It depends on what you're asking. Effective at what? At creating endurance? At energy expenditure? Not unless you have significant amount of more time, right? So covering a mile in running, you know, in a reasonable pace, maybe a 10-minute mile. A lot of people can't walk, you know, a 15-minute mile, which is a moderate pace, and it might be almost double time. So what, what is reasonable for you, and what do you mean by effective? Is it beneficial? Yes. But is it as beneficial as running? Not necessarily. But I will tell you that there is a threshold of returns. Like, the more you work harder, the more you do, you know, at some point you don't get as much reward. The most reward we're ever going to get when it comes to fitness is getting off the couch and starting to do a low to moderate level of exercise and movement. The next most beneficial will be moving from moderate to vigorous exercise, and we do know there is significant more both psychological and physiological benefits. But going further and more, when we talk about really going for performance, the benefits to health and wellness are actually diminishing at that point. Next question is, how much would I need to walk a week to support a weightlifting routine for cardio? So what I think this question means— I'm reading it verbatim, but I think this means How much would I need to walk to, to do walking as my cardio in support of my weight training routine? So my answer is I'll go back to the foundation of walking daily. I mean, walking daily should be something we all do because we sit so very much. I mean, there are very few of us who have jobs. I know they're out there, but most of us don't have jobs anymore that are very movement-oriented. We are all fairly inactive. So You know, I really, really value the days I spent teaching physical education, even though I wasn't necessarily teaching and demonstrating, like leading a class in warm-up to cool-down and that kind of a fitness class when I was educating at the university level. Some days, yes, but other days still, I was walking around, I was giving tips, I was on my feet, you know, and not always, you know, 50/50 of the time I was in a lecture hall, but I was standing up then. I had to walk across campus to get to the other auditorium. You know, there was much more movement involved than I have today, and I notice I have to get up, I have to make myself think about it. So I want you to think about what we're doing when we walk is creating a base of fitness on which to build anything else. The moderate level intensity that we've been conditioned to, or we've been spouting in my case, as gold for decades, is not actually helpful for midlife women. We don't want moderate exercise. It's what I refer to as the no-benefits zone. You want more walking all day, all-day pace. That's the foundation, very low level, you know, in your daily activities of life. That's kind of zone 1 and 2 covered. And then you want high-intensity exercise. That would be another factor to introduce in small amounts.. If you want to bump up your cardio, which, which we call in the lab your VO2 max, that's your ability to use oxygen. That's the strength and the power of your heart. So walk most days. If you want to simply set 30 to 45 minutes most days for good health, that's an option. If you want to reduce body fat by supporting blood sugar and insulin, and listen to the previous episode, okay, walking 15 minutes after each of 3 meals could actually be more beneficial than one long walk. Yep, you got to go back and listen to that if you haven't heard it. If you do choose to do 30 to 45 minute walks most days, I would vary those. So I like to myself, or have clients, do hills one day, do speed play another day, and do a longer, you know, maybe a hike on another day. And that way you're not doing the same thing every day because your fitness level will suffer The, the fastest way to kill your fitness is to do the same distance, same pace every single day. So you also probably kill your mentality and your motivation to go on that walk because you're seeing the same thing every day. So change your route. Next question is, will I gain any cardiovascular benefits if I'm a slow walker? Okay, I have a question for this individual. I mean, if it feels fast to you, that's all that matters. So I'm not certain if you're actually saying that you aren't capable of walking fast even though you want to. You are a slow walker, maybe because you're limited by something. So listen to this: you're definitely getting benefits of circulation and blood sugar stabilization from walking at any pace. At any pace, this is true. And you benefit from cortisol reduction too, probably most if you're getting outside to do this. But I also want to be sure that you're not judging what may feel like a fast pace to you because it's slow to somebody else. You know, all that matters is, you know, go your pace, go the pace you are able to. If you can go faster, try going faster sometimes. But if that's not possible, are you gaining benefits simply from walking? Yes, you are. There is some evidence— I will throw this out though— in relationship to specific speed that for weight-bearing exercise, for bone density purposes, speeds of greater than 3.3 miles per hour are associated with bone benefits, but slower are not. And the reason, I think, if you consciously imagine yourself putting a heel strike down, you know, when you're walking at a faster pace, the faster you get going, the more that heel the heel strike is more definitive, more push that down, push that down, push that down. And there's going to be a little bit more heel strike or ground force impact. And that's how the bone benefits. But the slower we walk, the more gingerly, the more carefully we're setting our feet down. That doesn't happen to as much extent. Next question. Oh, and this is a doozy. So there's a long answer. Is 10,000 steps a day a good goal? And someone else had this question too. Like minds, 10,000 or 7,000 steps, which is optimal per day. So here's the research, and there's a bit about this in the previous episode that you're probably going to want to listen to if you haven't. 10,000 steps a day, it has been popularized, but it's not been proven scientifically. So you want to keep this in mind. In the recent podcast I posted this week, I referenced science about each 1,000 steps over 4,000. So you hit that 4,000 steps and you start accumulating it. Each 1,000 over 4,000 contributes more to testosterone boost. And also at 8,000 steps, testosterone was boosted most significantly. So part of that is reductions in cortisol that are happening as well, by the way. But above 7,000 or 8,000 steps otherwise seem to have diminishing returns. More isn't better, especially if you're exchanging time for walking that could be done doing mobility or strength training or higher impact exercise if you're able to. That could give you more bone benefit. So remember that the quality of your steps matters too. Incorporating brisk walking and maintaining good posture can enhance the benefits of walking. Additionally, combining walking with other forms of exercise like strength training and flexibility exercise create a better overall fitness picture. Remember, fitness is a factor of multi-components: strength, muscle strength, muscle endurance, body composition, mobility, and cardiovascular fitness. Next question is— well, two questions actually, again like mine's. How do you control breath and walking to improve core? Which is— this is really a, um, there's a lot led into this question, right? So the implication here is that if you control breath and walking, you can improve core. So I'm going to address that a little bit. And then the next question, very similar, said, uh, I think they meant what is— that wasn't there— but what is proper deep belly breathing that engages pelvic floor or diaphragm when walking? So very intelligent question. So here's the answer. Keep in mind, speed and resistance activate core. So if you're going for a slow walk, you're not going to have much core activation.. And you don't want to— I don't want for you that you're out there thinking about bracing your core or sucking it in. You're missing the point, right? So if you want to activate more core, just lift yourself up, have better posture. And yes, you want to use your breath, but really what you don't want to do is abuse your breath. If you begin forcing and trying to contrive your breath, you're kind of off the beaten path here. So the only time you really need to focus too much on your breath is if you find you're walking at a pace that is outside of your comfort zone, which is too fast or too soon. You haven't done a warm-up to increase your respiratory rate or your circulation, so you're, you're just needing to slow down a little bit so you can breathe fairly evenly. So depending on what your walking goals are, again, you may or may not need to get breathless to go for a walk. So some of us will be walking with our mouths closed Typically when I'm quote-unquote going for a walk, my mouth is closed. It means I'm breathing completely in and out through the nose. That's not working very hard. So notice, or you would notice if you were a runner, that when you start working, when you become a little more dehydrated and your body's working to get that fluid, the blood, through your bloodstream a little bit, and it's thicker because you're dehydrated, you will start breathing through your mouth. Most people will at some point when they're running begin to breathe with their mouth, not their nose, or do a combination of mouth-nose breathing. And with walking, you may never go beyond that combination. If you're truly trying to do interval training, then charging up a hill, you know, for 30, 45 seconds, you may get breathless and breathe only through your mouth. But by the time you're back down that hill, you should be breathing through your nose. That's a sign of recovery. So just want to keep in mind You know, the breath that you're doing should be comfortable enough, relaxed enough as you're a beginner in walking at least, so that you can do deep belly breathing. It's all you would do. You are naturally going to take deeper breaths. What you wanna do if you're really feeling like you need to practice is practice sitting, practice at home and do this at rest first before you attempt to change your breathing while you're walking. So if you can't breathe well sitting down, you're probably not going to be able to apply something brand new while you're moving. So usually if we're introducing a new toy or technique in a fitness setting, we're teaching one skill first, then we're teaching the use of the toy separately, and then we bring them together. So similar to you, if you're already walking, fantastic. Don't think too much, don't overthink your, your breathing, just breathe. We like breathing. And then practice diaphragmatic breathing in a seated position where you're at rest, and then pull them together. And if you get better at doing the right diaphragmatic breath at rest, you will naturally begin to do it all the time. And that's really the ultimate goal. So when you do more diaphragmatic breath than you are engaging your pelvic floor, you don't want to be thinking about trying to stop urine or squeeze like you were going to prevent gas from coming out. That's not really the kind of tightening through your pelvic floor that you want. So I don't want you to think about doing that while you're walking, but just inhaling and exhaling, doing it a little more deeply, dropping your shoulders down, making sure your arms are swinging, will already help you. Also, just to help you engage that and keep your breath deeper, not shallow, allow yourself to warm up at a slower speed than your full-speed walk so that your circulation your respiration can gradually catch up to the need that you have and the demand for oxygen. If you're going too fast or too soon too fast, you're probably gonna push an intensity that doesn't allow deeper breathing. And so you may just wanna slow down just a little bit. So some people will find it beneficial to match their breath to their steps. You know, I find that it's probably easier to be distracted than really focused on your breathing in, in for 2 steps and breathing out for 2 steps. That gets a little tedious. And even runners who are working at a harder pace, and that is a struggle when you're trying to create a body that isn't that fit to begin with, that gets a little tedious. So instead, distracting yourself, maybe through music, maybe it's through conversation, and maybe you don't wanna be the one talking, but you're listening to someone else. May be a little bit more helpful. Next question is, should I walk with weights? Absolutely no. There's no really elaboration or room for discussion for this with me. It's pretty non-negotiable. The risk outweighs the benefits unless this— okay, here's why the risk outweighs the benefits. So most generally, when somebody says, should I walk with weights, what they mean is holding hand weights or holding them— I'm sorry, wearing them maybe on the wrist. And the other option is wearing them on the ankles. And that was an absolute no, absolute no. There is never a good time to do that. What you're doing is there's a weight on that lever at the end of your lower leg, and every time you swing that knee through, you're pulling, you're putting torque on a very loose joint. Not a good situation at all. And, and then if we're talking about the upper body, think about— as a female, this may not apply to you, but if it doesn't, you're the anomaly. Most of us find and hold our tension in the upper back, in the shoulders, and in the neck. And you put weights in your hand, and do you know what happens? Automatically you tighten the upper back, the shoulders, and the neck because you've got something in your hand, and it's very difficult to allow that to drop down. So again, you have this swinging from a long lever at a— from a point where you already hold tension. So I think it makes a little more sense. And I want you to think, why, why do you want to hold the weights? If it's because, well, I want to get a little more arm tone, you know what, if you spend 5 minutes doing specific arm exercises when you come back from that walk— but you only want to do that 2 or 3 times a week, by the way— you're going to get far better results than walking with weights and far less risk. So just really make good decisions there. The wearing a weighted vest, you would never want to start— if you're used to going for a 30-minute walk, you don't start wearing a weighted vest right away for 30 minutes. You start wearing a weighted vest, getting used to it, wearing it around your kitchen when you're cooking dinner for 5 or 10 minutes. Because again, where's the shoulder— where does the vest rest? I could just give that one away— on your shoulders. So you're gonna— you'll come up to meet it and you're gonna tense through the shoulders. Now gradually, if you get used to it, you will learn to let that come down. But going out for a walk for 30 minutes and then being 2 miles from home and realizing, I can't take this thing off till I get back— and that's not a good place to be. So you really— you're gonna overuse some muscles. So the risk is, as you're swinging your legs, you're swinging your arms, if you've got weights in them, you're going to create extra tension and torque on joints. So please Next question, actually several of them. So to all of you who said, how do I prevent tightness in the hips or in the lower back? Somebody else says they have tight hips after walking, and someone asked what would cause lower back pain while I was walking. So let's dive in and unpack all of these. Lower back pain, and I'm going to dive in there first because it's probably the most significant of all injuries any human male or female of any age has to deal with. Lower back pain can be prevented if it's caused by walking with improvements in your walking posture. So the video I created for you on YouTube will be a little bit better in terms of demonstration. If you're looking at the podcast I just did before this one, I embedded that video in it so you don't even have to go hunt for it. If you're not already following us there, there. So wishful thinking on my part, but if you are walking right now, imagine really tall posture, but don't overcorrect your spine. We're supposed to have a neutral spine, so you don't want it flattened. You just want an easy curve in the small of your back. What you want to be doing though is leaning forward from your ankles. Hear that again, leaning forward from your ankles. Not from your waist. So if you are bending over from your waist, stand up. If you were standing in line for a loan at the bank, you'd stand a little taller, right? So I want you to do that, and then you're going to keep that posture, and then you are going to angle forward from your ankles, and that will cause you to feel like you're going to fall and you have to step forward. That's what walking is— stopping yourself from doing a face plant. That's all it is. Walking is doing that, and running is doing that a little faster. So we'll lean forward from your ankle, but with excellent posture, tipping from the ankle. So you're not leaning from your hip. And many people who get sore after walking are leaning forward from their hips. They don't even realize it. The other cause that it might be of that lower back pain is your head is forward, and that also causes tension in your upper back and your neck. So pull your head backward. That's retraction. If right now just you freeze, take your finger, put it on your nose Now leave your finger there if you can, right? It's in space, I know, but pull your head back away from it. And what you just did was retraction. Stand against the wall, try to push the center of your head back into the wall. That's also some retraction. You can lie down belly on the floor and pull your head up and away from the floor. Don't look forward, look at the floor. So you're pulling the back of your head, right in the middle of the back of your head toward the ceiling. That's retraction also. But we don't do enough of that. We can let that head go forward and we tip forward from the hip. Both of those things might contribute to your lower back pain. So I want you to walk and I want you to make sure you're swinging your arms. Let them go. Otherwise you're probably holding tension in that upper torso and it's going to get a little tired doing that. One thing that will help with tension is change your gait. So whether we're talking about your hips getting stiff or we're talking about your lower back, change your gait or your stride length. So your step is is probably a very predictable certain inches long based on your height, based on just what has become your habit over a lifetime. So what I want you to do is think from period, period of time to period of time while you're walking. You want to lengthen your stride, you want to shorten your stride and quicken your stride. Because if you do the same posture for, you know, probably more than 30 minutes, but at that point if you're maintaining it And if you're just starting to walk, you know, 30 minutes might be a long time. So that could be you too. You will kind of cause your fascia— that's the netting, the connective tissue that covers our muscle— to lock up. It just stiffens. And this happens to runners quite frequently, especially those that are distance runners. They come back from a run, and here they've been moving and exercising, and everybody thinks, well, mobility, right? You're you're loose because you've been moving, and they're like stiff as a board. And the reason is your fascia get, get locked up. So the answer to that is change your pace, take a different step. It's not— you don't want to do the same thing over and over. So I do this with music regularly when I'm walking, and I also will play like a child on the curb or pick out the crack between the pavement and the curb, and I will I'll do like 4 steps on one side, 4 on the other side, and then 2, and then 2, and 1, and 1, and 1. Play like a child. And I will play faster music sometimes, or I'll be listening to just a playlist of— who I listened to most recently? Tim McGraw. Tim McGraw is like the greatest country music life coach ever. Sorry about that little trivia there, but there's faster songs and there's slower songs on Tim McGraw's Essentials playlist., and that I use. So I'm walking to the beat and then I'm taking short, quick steps when it's faster and I'm lengthening my stride on other times and doing that on purpose. And then I'm much more comfortable. And I will tell you that I went for a hike today. So literally on a hike, you're going up and you're going down and there are smaller rocks sometimes and bigger rocks. So you're changing your stride constantly. And I went for the same distance walk— hike today as I've been doing walks on pavement during the week. And yet I'll come back from those walks on the pavement and feel much more beat up. Same problem, right? I'm stiffer because my stride doesn't change that much unless I consciously apply the change. So try that for yourself. Just use music. Or if you're listening to podcasts instead, like this one, and I would love a shout out if you tell me, oh my gosh, I was listening to the podcast on walking while I was walking. How meta. You could tell me, but you have to then use it yourself. So look at something that a kid would see and play with, like step up, step back, step side to side, go quick, go slow. There is a— somebody spray painted a ladder, like, you know, for ladder drills on the pavement just up the street where I hop on the trailhead from my house when I walked, like, this morning. And it's been there since I moved in, and I absolutely love it. You know, I will— every time I come back from a walk, sometimes I'll go up and just walk up to it and do ladder drills and then walk back down. But other times, like I'm coming back off of a trail, I'll use it because again, I'm breaking up my longer just walking stride, and it's so good for you. The same is true for people who are riding a bike for a long period of time. We do lock up. And even if you were swimming, the water is less likely to do this because it's more forgiving and it's supporting you all over. But if you were a swimmer and you were doing the crawl for an hour, And trust me, I know this one. You still lock up a little bit in, you know, oh my gosh, like your arms and your shoulders are just tired of being in that same position even though there's a little bit more movement. So it's slightly different. Okay, so I also have several warm-ups that might be helpful for you. Leg swings are a favorite. Spiders, if this is ringing a bell. They can be done before a walk to loosen up, and loosening up the lower back before you begin and/or doing that when you come back. And we're talking 2 to 3 minutes to do this, and you can do it in a standing position. The spiders, you do have to get down on the ground for. There's a way you could modify in a chair, but those warm-ups can also be found on my YouTube channel, and I'll link to those in the show notes too. Somebody else asks, long strides or short? So this is just a piggyback on this last question. The answer I hope you all get is yes. Yes to both. Based on that previous response, you want to mix it up. Find your own comfortable stride. You already have it, and then mix it up. If you're going for a longer walk, this is most important. So you're— it's not the same, you know, if it's anything over 30 minutes. If you've been walking regularly for that long, then make sure you're introducing some different tempos, shorter and longer strides. Somebody asked, what is the best posture while walking up a hill? And a secondary question was saving our knees. Now, I'm not sure if those questions were tied together, if the question was about saving your knees while you're walking up the hill. So if I've missed this, I may misinterpret, you can let me know that. But what I want you to do is that same angle forward always happens from the ankle but nothing about your crown of your head to your ankle position should change. You're going to be leaning into that, that terrain, the hill, a little bit more, but from the ankle, not from the back. Your posture remains the same. You are going to pump your arms more because your arms propel your legs. You don't want to be going slower up a hill because it actually— you're going to feel every step more, right? So I prefer that you walk either the same pace, you try to maintain that same pace pace that you were doing on a flat by pumping your arms. If you need to take a break, then you take the rest, but then you pick it up, pick it up again. What is the best walking routine to burn the most fat in a shorter period of time? Oh my goodness, if we had the answer to that, we would not be here, my friend. We would be in Tahiti. But actually, I'm going to say this is like putting a gun to my head to have to answer this question because The answer completely depends. So whoever you are listening to this answer, you are in a different state than the other 999,000 women listening to this podcast episode. And so what speed will burn the most fat in the shortest amount of time for you is very different. What routine is very different than it is for somebody else. So this is like What if you're listening and you have adrenal fatigue versus you're listening and you are an athlete, you're actually feeling the best and the strongest and the most energetic you ever have, and you're sleeping fabulously and have a great libido? These are two different answers for these two different people, and any of us are somewhere probably in between. So here's what I need to tell you: if you want to burn fat you have to be in an optimal cortisol and insulin dance. And I could tell you a routine that for someone would support fat burning, but for you it might encourage fat storage or adrenal fatigue or both. Without knowing more about any individual, answering this question is really tricky. You need to know whether your biggest goal should be removing the obstacle if you have cortisol issues. So if you have a low energy, you're just drained, you're tired all the time, we can't be talking about trying to burn fat. What we need to talk about is tuning back that cortisol into a more optimal level. That's the obstacle that's in the way. It's not the fat burning. You're probably very capable of doing that. It's just that right now that won't help you. So you need to know that. And if you need some support with getting the energy back, with learning how less exercise could actually be more beneficial, the Hot Numb Other Challenge is open right now. We're gonna put that in the show notes too. But I hope that this answers the question so you realize what I learned. And this is, this is that— realize please, I'm an 8-time iron distance triathlete. That means I love training endurance, right? Nobody puts himself through that much punishment again and again on purpose unless they love it. But for me right now, walking at a doable pace regularly is really what it takes to release cortisol, to decrease that so I can control my blood sugar levels. That is what will help me burn fat. It's not that I need a quote-unquote fat-burning pace by intensity standards, but it's what I most need right now to remove the cortisol so that I can release the body weight and the fat. And your body doesn't want to carry excess fat, so if what you're doing right now is not helping you lose it, potentially it's time to change what it is you're doing to try to lose it. It may be easier than you think. Okay, next question is, was simply stated as quote-unquote for osteoporosis. So here's how I'm going to interpret this question, and that is that I think somebody is asking how to walk for osteoporosis. So mentioned earlier, walking is weight-bearing, and it was very brief, so if you probably didn't miss anything, don't worry about it. Walking is weight-bearing, and weight-bearing is one of the recommendations in addition to weight resistance or resistance training like strength training for osteoporosis. But it's only as good as your ability to walk about a mile, right? Once you can accumulate that much distance, walking 5 miles is not giving you more bone density because you are already adapted to the stress of your feet hitting the ground with the same body weight every time. That would be like you going to the gym and picking up a 5-pound weight, and the first time you did it might cause you to reach fatigue. But if you're still doing that same weight 5 years later, something's wrong, friend, right? You should be lifting a much bigger weight because you're stronger now. Your bone needs different stimulus. It has to progress. So just walking more gives you just the same amount of stress and load, and your bones only respond to additional stress and load. So it's important that you get that. So if you're thinking, you know, should I walk or is that good? Yes. If you can do higher impact, you're able to do some hopping or some jumping or more ground force, you also want to consider that would be even better. Okay, so you may not want to jump or do high impact every day. You may want to walk some days, jump or hop other days, stomp, dance, do some other things. But yes, that kind of impact and strength training will be beneficial for bone density. But I would never suggest walking only for osteoporosis. It is simply not enough. If you're on the couch doing nothing walking is significantly improving your bone density compared to walking, or I'm sitting. But what we're really talking about here is not gaining bone density. We're just talking about stopping the loss that sitting on the couch causes. And you're wanting, if you can, you're wanting to do as much as you possibly are able. Someone asks, I feel tight in my upper calf and behind my knee so much that it's painful to squat. What do do. Now, I'm not sure if this question actually came relative to walking, but everything I'm answering here is relative to walking, so that's how I'm going to answer it. So I would consider, number one, how long— if this is your question— you have been experiencing this pain. If it's longer than a couple of weeks, you've— and you have reduced any stress that you're putting on it. So obviously, if you're feeling this stress when you do squats, you don't do squats. And if you're feeling this stress when you're walking, you're not walking right. You're stopping the actual stressor on this and you're still feeling it, it's not improving, then I would get a physical therapy injury screen and see what they suggest doing. If they can help, they will refer you to your doctor first to get a diagnosis so you can get a prescription and, and then potentially do some physical therapy. Therapy. If they suggest they can't do anything or don't know what it is, they'll suggest you go to the doctor or suggest some immediate things if you haven't already done them. What I would suggest, that if you haven't already been doing this— again, remove the things that are hurting you, please, that's for sure first— then start doing some self-massage if you haven't already. So if it's behind the knee, hopefully you can reach down, and I want you to just to get in there and palpate. I mean, can you feel a tender spot, or are there knots you can feel. You might also go into your kitchen, get your rolling pin. There's a tool called the stick, the massage stick, that is made for this, but you can use a rolling pin. And trust me, I used to do it with mine because then it wasn't getting any other action. It's the best, best action it had in a long time. So work on just rolling it back and forth on that leg. You can also try, say, rolling a tennis ball over it. Not necessarily your body weight, just take the tennis ball in your hand and roll it and kind of push push it and move it right over that area with gentle pressure for a few minutes regularly. You know, in anything that causes pain, you should note and you should stop to allow it to heal. If it doesn't, in spite of those steps, begin to get better, then again, seek advice from physical therapist or sports medicine professional and find out what's going on. If we're doing some strength and HIIT weekly How does walking impact our cortisol levels? So I'm gonna give a little preliminary— here's how I am interpreting this question. I'm thinking that maybe the person with the ask here is wondering if the cortisol will go higher because this is more exercise. I don't know, but I'm using my intuition to, to see. So generally the answer in terms of walking is it will impact positively your cortisol levels. It impacts them very well. Walking is the foundation of all movement. It's first before exercise in terms of importance. So we want to start there, and then you add strength. HIIT comes in last, only if you had good energy and sleep. Remember, you're reducing cortisol with walking, and with HIIT and strength workouts, we use cortisol So cortisol elevated during those periods of time. However, they use it so wisely that it's intermittent, right? You lift weights for a minute, you put the weight down. So it's— you use cortisol, goes up, and then you put it down and cortisol comes down. And with high-intensity interval training, you're working really hard, elevating cortisol, and then you recover fully, cortisol comes back down. So there's not that continuous climb of cortisol like with moderate exercise done chronically for 45 60 minutes or more that actually elevates cortisol and doesn't have that reciprocal down or decline that we really are after. So walking doesn't elevate cortisol, it doesn't take that much energy, it's really lower on the effort level. So it's very beneficial for supporting better blood sugar levels, better cortisol cortisol optimization. So unless you are somehow trying to turn everything into work and something hard, you're gonna be rewarded with more optimal cortisol levels. There is an individual who says, we're back to knee pain. I always get knee pain after walking, and otherwise I'm a very active and fit person. So I would need to know a little bit more, unfortunately, about the location of the knee pain. But I'm going to inject here and do a lot of supposing, so bear with me. But there may just be a little bit of wear and tear that you are experiencing from the joint action that occurs over and over while walking that you may not be experiencing in other activities. Maybe because maybe you're doing something like a bike or elliptical, or just not the same repetitive movement over and over. So you're not experiencing this load in the same way that may end up walking is a negative and the other activities are not so much sore. You don't mention what else you might be doing to be very active and fit, so it's a little hard to tell, but it may simply be the biomechanics of you and the walking. We all have the same body parts, but we're not all put together in the same way. So, you know, it may be that walking for you, the idea of walking, but maybe not actually walking as thing. You may have to substitute that this activity currently is my walk, right? So for some, that's a bike ride or it's something else. Is it true if you keep your pace brisk at the threshold of wanting to break into a run, you burn more calories? Uh, my response is it is true that if you say fast walk, and I'm just giving you a number for example's sake, say you fast walk at 5 miles an hour. Now that's a pretty fast walk versus you jog at 6 miles an hour and that's your slow jog. You may very well expend more energy at a fast walk than at a slow jog. Do realize though that the goal and the end-all be-all is not necessarily burning calories, right? So what's your objective in walking? If it's burning calories, you might want to ask how well is that working, right? So we're not calorie in calorie out deficits, that that's how we'll lose weight or that's how we'll get fit, or we're not better if we burn more calories doing something. If you want positive results, it has to have a positive impact on your hormones. So realize that if you're stressing yourself out because you always go hard or you're always working hard and what you really need is remember to eliminate the obstacle mentioned earlier, it may not be about trying to burn more calories as your goal. If for instance you need to stabilize blood sugar, it doesn't have to be a brisk walk, just needs to be 15 minutes after a meal and you've done that. So So think about why is calorie control or calorie burning your goal, and is it really something that is the means to the end for the goals, bigger goals you have? Can you break walks into shorter sessions for the same benefit? So it's ideal to put your reasons for walking first into priorities, right? So is your priority, is it endurance? Well, then I would say shorter walks would not suffice because you want to stretch out and start getting longer with your walk. If your priority is reducing blood sugar and insulin resistance, then walking 15 minutes after each meal 3 times a day is more beneficial than walking 45 minutes at once in the morning or in the afternoon. So that, again, according to the research, is in that previous podcast. So if weight loss is your short or your goal, short walks after meals may be better. So yes, depending on your goal. So that answer is, can you break them into shorter walks for the same benefit? The same benefit is the tripping me up part of that sentence. So you have to define what benefit do you you want? Which one are you going for? Someone asked about walking with a bad hip, and without knowing more, yeah, it's hard to offer help on this one. But I would say walking with a bad hip, quote unquote, to, to quote you, in some cases would potentially make it worse. If it's, say, hip dysplasia or you're causing friction in your joint capsule, just probably is going to make it worse. I would see a physical therapist, or depending on your status or what you already might know about your hip, see an orthopedic surgeon if you don't know why the hip is bad in the first place. So that would be my first question is, what do we know about the hip and, and why is it bad? Someone asked, why do I always get shin splints? And I'm going to answer this with a are you sure it's shin splints? So here's what I mean. Before I go into this, I'd have to ask whether this is after a lot of walking. So is this after you've just initially started a lot of walking, you did a long walk, or is it after a little bit of walking and starting new and you haven't been walking at all? And if it is the latter, that this is just, I started walking and haven't been walking all that much, just a couple of days, and I already have shin splints. You don't have shin splints after a couple of days of walking. Shin splints are like micro fractures, and you probably have not done enough damage in that time to cause shin splints. So literally, those little fractures in the front of the shin bone, that's what a shin splint is. What more— what is more common and more mistaken as shin splints is just muscle fatigue in your anterior tibialis muscle. And that is, if you put your hand on the front of your shin, you can feel the bone, right? Well, in front of that bone is a very small muscle. Now you know how small, because you can feel bone through it, right? There's not a lot of muscle on the front of that bone, as compared to— put your hand on your calf, you feel muscle. Do you feel any bone in there? No. Well, there is bone in there, it's just so on the other side of that muscle. So when you start moving forward in a walking, intentionally way, you're pulling your toe up repeatedly, faster and more times than you're used to in the span of just a move from the bedroom to the kitchen or the couch to the office to— you know, we don't move all that fast in our house and we don't do it all that many times repeatedly. Then if you happen to be going outside and on your walks, you're walking up an incline, you're walking up and down hills, it's the up that you have to pull your toe dramatically up, and that dorsiflexion causes more and more repeated work for that anterior tibialis. Well, you know, when you haven't been doing that, it's been on vacation and it's been loving it. So you're waking it up and it's just sore. You overloaded it. It would be like going to the gym on the first day and lifting lifting 3 times what is your business to lift and lifting twice as many repetitions. How would you feel the next day? Probably not so good. And the same is true of your, your shin. So the problem— another problem is we don't stretch that area, right? We stretch our calves when we come back, but we don't stretch the front. You can drop your toe down to the floor behind you and drag your toe forward. That's a little bit of a way to stretch your the anterior part of your shin. It's a little tough, but you can massage it a little bit with ice cubes or Dixie cups and ice cubes, or ice in Dixie cups if you've got them, just to kind of cool it down and get rid of the inflammation. You can do a little massage, you can run that rolling pin on it again, but I would suggest backing off a little bit and gradually increase the length of your walk. So the first time you go out, go for 10 minute. Get used to that first. Next time, go 15. Get used to that. Then go 20. Then begin introducing hills. But if you're still experiencing it after that, then I would check with someone and, and look at what else might be going on for you. But generally, this is just overworking the muscles because we're jumping in too much too soon. Question comes up. This is the last one, so congratulations, you made it through the first 20. Should I stretch after walking? First of all, it's wise to stretch after intentional exercise. If you're walking to the mailbox or walking in the mall— most of us don't— but if you're losing mobility or range of motion, the best time to stretch so you can improve move mobility is after any movement when your core temperature is elevated. Muscles then are much more pliable. So that's certainly the wisest time. And, you know, I think probably all of us are going to wish, you know, when we're 80 that we had stretched a little bit more. We're not going to be thinking, oh, I'm so glad I didn't stretch. I was so busy, I didn't need that headache. Probably we're gonna say there's some things I wish I would have slowed down and paid a little more attention to. So yes, I would say I hope this has been helpful. It's probably one of the longest podcast episodes we've done in a very long time, but I'm so happy actually that there are so many questions coming in about this. I remember distinctly But it was the 4th of July last year for my 40th high school class reunion, walking away from our— I kind of— I guess it was the 4th of July fireman's dance, the 3rd of July. And a good high school classmate and I, friend, were walking away. She was— I was going to my car, she was gonna walk to her parents' home, and I offered her a ride. She's like, no, no, I want to get in the rest of my steps today. And I said, you know, that's— you don't actually have to do that. We've kind of gone back and forth. I'm like, you need to be lifting, you need to be lifting. It's not all about your steps. But walking is so very beneficial, and there are so many benefits. It's so easy for most people. And I realize you may be listening and it may not be easy. You may have a hip or a knee issue, and what you're looking for hopefully is the equivalent of your walking. And if you can find your way into water, if you're unable to walk any other way way. Water that is nipple to navel depth is excellent for lower back, for lower back pain, and for taking the effect of gravity off of your joints and yet allowing you to have the resistance of the water moving forward or back or stepping side to side. You have the ability to do so many things in the water and return a little mobility to yourself so that you feel good from being able to do it. I hope that was helpful for you. You will find today's show notes at flipping50.com/walkingtips, and we'll see you on the next walk.