Open discussion on walking
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@Aryan_Racist I just listen to the sounds in nature. I think you will not recieve all the same stress-release benefits if you listen to classical music or podcast while walking. It is a delight to listen to: the wind, the birds, and to the energy of water.
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Have any evolutionary biologists written about how birdsong might sound beautiful because it signals resources? This might in part be the reason we are so fond of trees too. Beautiful trees need sufficient water and light to grow. The energy that is stored in trees has been vital for humans since before we became homo sapiens.
It struck me today that your typical bird is much more musically gifted than the median man. The rhythm and tempo of the birds are truly breathtaking. It is also odd that birds with so limited mental capacity are in need of such complex music for mating. When I listen to birds, I feel that they sing to us. I assume we are the only ones able to appreciate the stunning beauty of birdsong. -
"During the 1870s and 1880s, America's most popular spectator sport wasn't baseball, or football—it was competitive walking. Inside sold-out arenas, competitors walked around dirt tracks almost nonstop for six straight days, risking their health and sanity to see who could walk the farthest—500 miles was standard"
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/20575443
The Last Great Walk by Wayne Curtis.
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I have been walking more this year and I feel better. Has anyone else been walking more? if so, what benefits are you experiencing?
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Yea walking is extremely underappreciated.
Walking will override terrible metabolism and get things moving in the right direction. One of the fastest drug free ways to lose weight without feeling terrible in the end. Just need to make time.
Dropped ~30lbs in 3months averaging 2hrs/5mi a day. Ate around maintenance calories +/-200. Most importantly, I didn't feel like shit or have to deal with rebound that comes with crashing calories to get the same fat loss rate.
A 'W' all around.
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@Jaffe You are right that losing weight without cutting calories is a much better long-term approach. Walking also makes you feel good. The increase in testosterone and lowering of cortisol improves life as much as anything else. The key is to create an upward spiral and keep going
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The more I walk, the more time I spend in the sun. I think this is to a large degree, where the benefits of walking come from. I think treadmills are a curse. Light is key to hormonal production, so this might explain how that Colorado fucker doubled his T-levels in one month.
I think the studies on jogging and high-intensity cardio overestimate the benefits of such activity. If you take a group of middle-aged or older people who perform jogging, then you are studying people who already have better health than the control group. People who jog are also bound to take better care of their diet. I genuinely think walking and low-intensity swimming are the finest forms of cardio. Jogging demands too much of the body and boosts the likelihood of injury more than necessary. Moreover, mainstream science miscalculates the implication of stress. Long slow-paced hiking trips in beautiful stimulating environments with good food have to be the best form of cardio.
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i suggest biking, its fun especially on hills
if u go fast it mitigates most of the stressful effects of running like impact force on joints
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@Norwegian-Mugabe said in Open discussion on walking:
I think treadmills are a curse.
I think that treadmilling is an inferior form of walking. It dulls the mind and requires very little thinking. The gyms have treadmills with built-in access to the internet so that one can watch something while one mindlessly walks on the treadmill.
I like the image below in that it reminds me of the old RPF.
The Sense-Think-Act Cycle is used in programming of robotic devices. (see)
With treadmilling, one is stuck in an endless loop and there is very little need to adjust the details of of each step to the environment. In contrast, when I am walking outside I am navigating the terrain and actively thinking. This is one of the reasons that trees and other vegetation do not need a brain; they do not move.
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Adequate walking, sleeping, meat and dairy is probably all you really need to be healthy. I have bought a couple pedometers to track my steps, but keep losing them, so I've had to resort to counting my steps again. Of course, I don't count every step like a madman, but only every other step. At the end of my walk I multiply that number by 2 to get the total number of steps.
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biking is inferior to hiking as we evolved to walk.
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brute de force?
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Yea so I’d just like to piggy back off some of the ideas here.
Been walking a lot recently and I find that thoughts come to me much more readily when I am on a walk. It fuels inspiration.
I’ve noticed that nature is great but I really love walking in the city near me as the buildings are so beautiful. Yesterday I went to the museum which also has an art gallery and just looking at the art seemed to open my mind. There was a few Van Gogh paintings that really inspired me.
I think walking really breaks you out of that serotonin fuelled mindset and so add more fuel to the fire if you find a scenic route whether it be in the city or nature I think they are both equally as good.
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@Jakeandpace Nature is objectively more restorative in terms of lowering stress and increasing androgens. Walking in the city has its own uses as you interact more with humans and can get inspired by human eminence.