Can walking be as effective a form of exercise as running? - Tony Paladin (Paladin Biokineticists)

Whenever we are going to relate things to one and other, it is always best to adopt the old adage of “comparing apples with apples”. Comparing apples with say bananas makes for good conversation; but it doesn’t actually address the cold, hard facts.

The debate about walking vs. running and the respective health benefits of each has swung like a pendulum for decades between Doctors, Surgeons, Biokineticists, Physiotherapists, Athletics coaches and Personal Trainers.

Before we can critically comment on whether walking can be as effective as running we would need to define what exactly: “form of exercise” means. If we loosely reference the World Health Organisation’s definition of “exercise”, we can break the components into functional / balance, flexibility, strength and cardiovascular.

If we use these components as indicators, we can critically assess whether walking is as “effective” as running.

From a functional / balance perspective, the slower the movement the greater the stimulus. Generally walking is a good choice for people who need to improve basic function, increase activities of daily living and enhance balance. The function / balance components can be respectively varied in difficulty by offering assistance or creating instability. Verdict = when it comes to training basic function and balance, walking wins.

Flexibility. Unfortunately on this front, neither walking nor running has much to offer in terms of increasing muscle and joint range of motion. If I had a loaded gun to my head and was asked to make a call, I would have to say that across the walking / running echelon, sprinting would probably elicit the greatest effect on flexibility due to the ballistic and elastic components of the activity. Verdict = Do Yoga or full range of motion exercises such as squats in conjunction to your walking and running program.

When we introduce strength into the walk / run debate, we end up with a chicken and egg situation. Does one need to be strong to walk and run or does walking and running make you strong? Lets make walking the chicken and running the egg. Walking is the most elementary form of movement; it is literally one step harder than sitting. From the perspective of rudimentary movement, it is logical that one should start with the basics prior to advancing the activity. The “basics” in this case, is walking and when advanced, is running. Strength however, nestles itself quite firmly in between the two activities: you need to be strong to run. Do we go with the chicken or the egg? Since neither walking nor running really develops strength, it is advisable to include other movements in your program, which do. Verdict = Walking should be progressed to incline walking which should be progressed to fast incline walking which should be progressed to running. Strength exercises should be included across the entire stratum.

Then we have the cardiovascular component. In short, the faster your heart beats, the more “cardiovascular” the modality of exercise is. One could argue that it is a no brainer that running elevates your heart rate more than walking does, but does it really? Running sloppily on a flat surface at a slow pace versus brisk walking with a backpack up a hill is like comparing apples with bananas. If we compare apples with apples; as a general rule running elicits more of a cardiovascular response on the body due to the speed of the activity. The body needs to work harder to run than to walk. If we are going to get walking to obtain the same level of work, we need to make it more difficult. This can be done with speed, resistance, hills and direction. Verdict = from a cardiovascular perspective, walking with purpose has the potential to topple lackadaisical running.

So… Shall I walk or shall I run? For the non-injured and mostly healthy community, running has the ability to elicit more of an exercise response than walking and should probably be the mode of choice. For individuals with joint problems or who are simply not fit enough to run, walking is a heck of a lot better than bum sitting in terms of exercise response. Even when walking is too easy and running is too hard, walk-running is also an alternative to get the heart rate up but still allow for bouts of rest. The bottom line is your ability: exercise is meant to be both challenging and enjoyable.

With regards to general health benefits, increased fitness, toning and weightloss; the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise per week; strength train each muscle group two to three days a week; do flexibility exercise two to three days per week; and finally, do functional exercise two or three days per week. Whether you choose to walk or run is your choice, just make sure your heart is beating while you are doing it!

Tony’s Primary areas of focus include: Orthopaedic rehabilitation through strengthening (mainly backs and knees). He works with regaining function in ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) reconstructions and total knee replacement patients.

Tony also has an interest in sport specific testing and training (primarily rowing, cycling, running and triathlon).

Tony can be contacted on 011 807 9877 or tonypaladin@kinetics.co.za. 

In case of an emergency, he can be contacted on 082 921 6776.

Are your hips moving just a little too much! - Bianca Bunge (Paladin Biokineticists)

So if there ever was an 'All great ruler' of the lower body it would most probably have been the Hip joint! The hip joint is one of the most important and widely used joints in the human body, it allows us to do just about EVERYTHING, and plays a vastly essential role in mobility as it allows us to walk, jog, run, hop, jump, skip - whatever floats your boat - the list goes on and on...!! It is responsible for baring our body's weight (and after piling on a few killos after winter even more so) and is considered as an essential region of force transmission. The hip joint must therefore be able to accommodate various repeated, extreme forces during intense physical activity.

Furthermore, as the hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint it is also considered as one of our most flexible joints as it allows for a greater range of motion than most of the other joints in our body. Therefore, functionally, the hip joint enjoys a very large range of motion. It would therefore make sense that the hip joint should be stabilized before it gets completely out of control and goes on a free range rampage!! Poor hip stability can therefore be seen as the long lost answer to various deep (and shallow for that matter) rooted problems! Poor hip stability can further result in various movement dysfunctions and muscle compensations that can in the end be detrimental and lead to various aches, pains and even injuries!

Hip instability can be viewed as the common thread to a variety of different problem. Hip instability is a problem that's far more common than we like to admit! But as they say, admitting you have a problem is the first step, then comes the hard part, FIXING IT!! And this is far more of a daunting task. But the best way is to approach your 'Hip dysfunction and instability problem' is using a step-by-step approach! The fact is there can be a vast variety of different contributing factors, causes, compensations and imbalances that can be the culprits of your deep rooted problem! But don’t fear, that’s exactly what we’re here for – we’ll stabilise those hips of yours one step at a time!

Step 1: Deep tissue mobility - A tight muscle is not necessarily a strong muscle! Look at it like this, when you're feeling all stressed out and tensed up you don't want to work, and effectiveness and efficiency is the last thing on your mind - same thing with your muscles, when they're strained and tight there's no way they’re going to want to work effectively! Muscle tightness will result in reduced range of motion ultimately negatively influencing your performance and movement patterns! So basically what it comes down to is that you need to be loosened up, and soon too!

Step 2: Isolated strengthening - Time to put in that good old hard work, let that sweat roll down your face and get those muscles strong - because a weak muscle is definitely not going to take you the distance you want it to! But, it's all about specificity - target the RIGHT muscle and achieve the RIGHT results!!

Step 3: Functional strengthening - Cause in the end of the day you need to be functional - you need to be up and about doing your thing!! Here we get you up on your feet and strengthen you in a dynamic and functional way – this most definitely gets those muscles firing!

Step 4: Dynamic Stabilizing - So now that you've secured some good old hip stability it's important to make sure this stability carries over into dynamic, quick, functional movements!

Step 5: Time to show off your brand spanking new hip stability!

Time to develop some stable, well-functioning hips that will get Shakira raving!

Pounding the pavement – Can running do more harm than good?

You’ve been told that running sheds the pounds. Your Personal trainer has given you a running program to boost your goals but after the 3^rd week your knees are so sore that you look crippled when walking up stairs.

On the 3^rd kilometer of your track session, you become increasingly annoyed with the Kenyan guy who has lapped you for the 9^th time; not only because he is so unbelievably fast, but because you get a fright every time he zips past you.

If this sounds familiar, then you are not sufficiently conditioned to be running the distances you are attempting. You probably sound like a small elephant with flip flops on when you run because you actually lack the intrinsic lower limb strength to control the dynamic gait of running.

If you compare your lower leg and foot strength to that of a seasoned Comrades runner, you will more than likely find that they are able to do a lot more with their functional bodyweight than you can; such as a one legged squat and an unassisted one legged calf raise.

The best comparison of whether one is potentially doing more harm than good during exercise is the blister analogy. If you start lifting weights without gloves, your hands will blister. If you continue lifting weights and do not give the blisters time to become callous, then your hands will proceed to tear open and become injured.

The solution is common sense. Before you even start running; ensure that you have basic functional lower limb strength such as being able to do a one legged squat. A Biokineticist can assist with this and get you going. Once you start your running program, start with small distances and apply the 10% rule, running no more than 10% distance OR intensity each week.

If you slowly build up, you should see steady improvements over time until you are running comfortably without pain.