Amanda Wilde (Host): Today, we're diving into the world of walking and exploring its incredible benefits for your health and overall well-being. From shedding pounds to boosting your mood, walking is a simple yet powerful activity that can have a profound impact on your life. Join Justin Bickford, a Doctor of Physical Therapy with Memorial Hermann to learn how many steps you should get in a day and why.

Welcome to Every Day Well, a health and wellness podcast brought to you by Memorial Hermann Health System. Tune in for the latest tips and information about healthcare topics that matter most to you. Justin, welcome to the podcast.  

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Thank you for having me, Amanda.

Host: It's a pleasure. Counting steps is really popular these days. What is the recommended daily step goal for most people?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Five thousand steps a day is the recommended goal. Now, if you are a little bit more athletic or if you are somebody that walks recreationally, you may be able to get to 10,000. So, 10,000 is a great goal to shoot for, but for the general public, 5,000 steps is a great place to be.

Host: Now, if you are under 5,000 or you want to increase your step count, what is the safe and healthy way to do that?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: If your city is a walkable city, sometimes you have the opportunity to walk along sidewalks, to walk out in nature. Your neighborhood might have sidewalks. But if you don't have that kind of setup where you live, you can also do it in an air-conditioned environment, like a mall. Go into the mall before the mall opens, you can walk around there to get your step count up. But let's say you don't have a mall close by, and you are somebody that works from home. You can get your step count up within your own home by every time you need to go to the bathroom or go to the kitchen, just make a lap around your house. And you don't realize it, but throughout the day, all those laps add up to a lot of steps.

Host: That's good for winter too, because early sunsets, you might not be able to go outside. What about those walking pads?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Those walking pads work really great. If you have access to them, I encourage you to use them. It's a little more therapeutic to get your step count up in nature than it is to get it in your home. So, I say, if you got it, that's a great place to go do it.

Host: Yeah. So, terrain plays a bit of a role here. If you're outside, you're on different terrain. If you're on a walking pad or even in your house, you're probably on more even terrain. Does that make a difference in your step count?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Not necessarily on your step count, but if you are on an uneven terrain, then sometimes you to be a little bit more careful about your foot placement. So if you have balance issues or if you have endurance issues, walking on a trail or something that's not concrete or flat or level, it can make it a little more difficult. But if you walk with a walking stick or something like that, you can always find ways to make it work.

Host: Okay. There's conflicting information out there about the difference between walking and running and how that relates to calorie burn. Is there a significant difference between walking and running?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Well, there's not a significant difference in the calories burned. The only variable in that equation is typically going to be the time that it takes you to do it. You can typically run a or jog a mile a lot faster than you can walk a mile. With running and with jogging, you get your rate up, so you do get more cardiovascular benefits from it, but if you're just talking about burning calories, walk mile, run that mile, jog that mile, same amount of calories burned.

Host: Is walking a little easier on the body?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Walking takes a lot of the ground reaction force that goes through your joints when you jog and when you run, it takes away those kind of things. So for people have joints that may be able to tolerate high-impact activities, walking is safer way to get your step count up, without stressing your bones and joints too much.

Host: What are some of the other health benefits of walking beyond weight loss, which we mentioned?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: I think some of the common benefits of walking are overlooked. Things like your strength. So, your strength is basically how much force your muscles can produce. So, like, if you've ever heard of one rep max, how much can you bench press, how much can you squat? That's a measure of strength. So, walking improves your strength. It can improve your endurance.

And your endurance is long your muscles can produce force without getting tired. So, in grocery stores, they typically put the milk at the very back of the store. So, can you walk the to the of the store to get the milk, and then walk all the way to the front without having to take rest break? That's endurance.

The third component to that is power. And your power is fast your muscles can produce force. So, for example, if you're in the grocery store and somebody bumps into you, how quick can you step to the side to catch your balance without falling over?

Now, with walking, your strength, your power and your endurance are very valuable, the thing that all of those parts contribute to is your balance. And so, one of the biggest benefits of walking recreationally is your balance to keep you off the floor.

Host: How does walking improve balance and reduce the risk of falls?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: It increases the integrity and the resilience of the muscles to do their job more efficiently without getting as tired. It's kind of like if you haven't done squats in a while, and then you do squats, your legs get tired, they sometimes get wobbly, it can be hard to climb stairs. If your muscles can't do their job, your likelihood of falling skyrockets. And that's definitely one of the things that can increase your risk for fractures or for traumas, is if you lose your balance and you fall down to the floor, life gets a lot harder for you.

Host: And it's harder to get back to where you were after a fall too.

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: That's exactly right.

Host: So, strength, endurance, power, it seems to me that walking should contribute to perhaps a longer lifespan, does it?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: It does. The research shows us that when you fall, you have an increased likelihood of breaking your wrist, kind of putting your hands out to brace yourself, or breaking your hip. So, did your hip break and you Or did you fall then break your hip? Regardless, those kind of fractures can decrease your lifespan. It makes it harder recover from it, and then it makes it harder to get back to that level of intensity with walking afterwards. So, the best way to keep yourself off the operating table is to keep yourself off the floor.

Host: Yeah. That sounds like a good policy. Let's talk about pre-walking. In other words, how do you prepare for a walk? Is stretching before walking necessary like it is before running?

Well, stretching is important for the right person. Now, not everybody needs to stretch before they exercise. So, for example, you probably have friends or family members that can touch their palms to the floor. And you probably have friends or family members that can't put their hands on their knees because they're so tight. Everybody's a little bit different. Our bodies are all made similar, but different. So if you're one of those really flexible people, you might not need to stretch before you walk. But if you're one of really stiff people, you might need to stretch before you walk. But regardless, everybody needs to stretch after walking, just like after exercise. You might not need to use it to get going, but to do it as a cool down is a great way to keep your muscles long and strong.

And what about the importance of proper footwear? 

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Footwear is very important, especially depending on what terrain you're walking in. If you are walking on an unstable surface, say you're doing trails, say you're going for a hike, say you're on a slope or in sand or something like that, the tread on your shoes can definitely make a difference. If you're walking in your house, you might not need to worry about that quite so much.

But your shoewear is one of those things that we don't give enough credit to, but shoes typically last around 500 miles. So depending on how many steps you take during the day or how many miles you walk during the week, that can kind of give you an idea of how long the wear pattern on those shoes should hold up before they start changing in ways that can make walking a little more difficult for you. They kind of lose their advantage over time.

Host: Yeah, the footwear does break down over time. Can you translate 500 miles into 5,000 steps a day? Let's say you're taking 5,000 steps a day, how long would it take you to accumulate 500 miles on your shoes?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: A little over a year.

Host: And is there other equipment besides the proper shoes that we should think about?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Well, some people like to track their steps. So if you're somebody that does it by distance, you can use your phone, but if you want to track your actual steps, something like a watch that has a step tracker on it, that's usually an easy way to keep track of things, and sometimes it's one of those devices that you can use to help keep yourself motivated. So, you can set goals for yourself, you can to exceed those goals, you can earn different rewards based on how long you walk and how many steps you take during the day, and then how many days consecutively you take those steps, a way to keep yourself accountable.

Host: And that's probably why those devices have made walking more popular. That's a great strategy to find motivation. Do you have other strategies to motivate to walk regularly?

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: I think if you have somebody that can walk with you, somebody else that can hold you accountable, makes a big difference. When you're starting an exercise routine, whether you're walking or going to the gym, it can be kind of intimidating. It can be easy to find reasons not to do it, rather than finding reasons to do it.

But if you somebody that you're walking with recreationally, they can hold you accountable so that you show up on time, so that you're there. If you don't show up, they may be asking you, "Hey, is everything okay? We had a consistent date of walking at say, 9:00 a.m., three times a week, and you didn't show. Is everything all right?" So, the social aspect of that is kind of undervalued as well. Plus, while you're on those walks, that's a chance for you to talk to that person. And if you're talking about other things besides walking, you won't realize how many steps you accumulate while you're doing it. So, it makes it a lot less stressful when you're not focused directly on it.

Host: That's so true. I went on a 10-mile hike and I didn't think I could make it. I hadn't realized it was that far, but the leader talked to me the entire time. And I was really happy that I could make it through.

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: Yeah, it makes it a lot easier. If you can overcome the six inches between your ears, you can overcome anything.

Host: Well, Justin, thank you for your insights and tips on how to use walking to its fullest potential to enhance our health and quality of life.

Justin Bickford, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT: No problem. Thank you for having me.

Host: Justin Bickford is a Doctor of Physical Therapy with Memorial Hermann. To learn more about Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, visit the Memorial Hermann website at mhhs.org/physicaltherapy. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. Thank you for listening to this episode.