How To Take a Walk

Tips to consider before your next sojourn on foot

By Khilav Majmudar

As someone who always considered walking as an activity worthy of being pursued only by geriatrics looking to lubricate their limbs, this quarantine situation has brought about a sea change in my estimation of said process. In the distant past, I used to visit the Rec Center with a metronomic consistency, and while I am sure that I will return to that state of mind once this new normal comes to an end, an ongoing discovery of the pleasures of the daily saunter has currently kept me occupied.

A peripatetic journey can be executed with various mindsets, and I will merely discuss my own experiences. But the simple act of taking a walk, regardless of the form in which it takes, ultimately achieves the common outcome of refreshing both mind and body. The physical component of the benefits are well known and experienced by many, so I will not spend too much time on that. I personally recommend a march at a brisk pace, one which makes you breathe a little harder and gets the heart pumping. This method of walking should be employed when seeking to capitalize on the exercise benefits that are offered. However, even a gentle trudge will do more good than sitting in a chair.

A few words are in order regarding the duration of a jaunt. At the risk of sounding authoritative, I suggest a minimum of 20 minutes for a trek to be profitable. This number is purely anecdotal and will differ from person to person. Twenty here is just a placeholder for the length of time one would take to feel one’s legs loosen up and to get into a genuine stride and rhythm.

I have found that ever since quarantine transitioned from an impending proposition into being a daily feature, I have experienced a new alertness to the sights, colors, and sounds of my surroundings. It would hardly be a farfetched guess to presume this is due to fewer things to focus on. Pre-quarantine, I would be thinking about what to pack for lunch, what time to leave for work, which bus to catch, or how I would fit in a trip to the grocery store or the gym in my schedule. Now that these have largely become non-issues for many of us, we should utilize this freed headspace to adopt a renewed appreciation for, among other things, the colors of the sky, the architecture of houses, the tweets and chirps of birds, and the inevitable summertime din of construction and maintenance work in our city.

My advice is to make discovery the aim of one’s excursions. Take different routes every day. If one is an evening rambler like me, excellent use can be made of the clement weather around 5–6 p.m., when the world is well-lit and wide awake, yet the streets are empty enough to not be an annoyance. This is a perfect time to explore our own and nearby neighborhoods—which we commonly neglect, owing to our regimented routines. To invoke a few personal examples, I came across a couple of new parks, spacious parkways, and a potentially dangerous and forbidden stretch of gravel along a railway line. I had seen on several occasions a couple of informative boards at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Stinson Boulevard but never bothered to stop and read them. Upon taking the time to do so one of these days, I got a short and sweet lesson on the history of the Como neighbourhood and the Mid-City industrial area.

Here, I am tempted to quote Mr. Sherlock Holmes when he said to Dr. Watson, “You see, but you do not observe,” in “A Scandal in Bohemia.” As an example, we all “see” many electronic billboards every day, but if one pauses to glance at the advertisements which appear on them, one would scarcely fail to notice the stark incongruity of a sombre recommendation of social distancing followed by the razzle-dazzle of colors in a Burger King two-for-one announcement. This discovery was quite a hilarious moment for me.

At the end of the day, the benefits of a stroll can hardly be exaggerated. If you have not started yet, just do it once, then once more. The great outdoors will be irresistible thereafter.