Three Rules for walking

Simple steps for better steps

Here are three rules for walking, I have developed to encourage the kind of walking I am trying to promote. If followed these will lead to safe, pleasant, and enjoyable walks, that expand both your mental and physical horizons. The three rules are hierarchical, the first one is the most important, then the second, then the third.

Chris's Three Rules of Walking:

1. Don't die.

2. Be comfortable.

3. Start from where you are.

1. Don't die.

An obvious but crucial starting point. In practice this rule mostly means 'don't be hit by a car'. This largely involves knowing where the car that could kill you is coming from and not being there when it does.

2. Be comfortable.

Your body was made to walk. So you can and should be comfortable while walking. As much as I have been extolling the virtues of the Long Walk recently, you should not walk beyond what is comfortable. A light soreness and tiredness in the legs and feet is fine, but if you are in actual pain, you will be distracted and sad. Good shoes, socks, and appropriate clothing will help. I've found it is possible to be comfortable walking in most weather conditions, with very hot days being the most difficult. If you are starting to feel uncomfortable, it is probably time to go home.

3. Start from where you are.

This rule is less obvious. It may even be slightly controversial because many people do not walk like this. The basic idea is you should usually not drive somewhere to go walking.

If you can do so comfortably and safely, start your walks from where you currently are. This probably means your home, but it could also be your work, or wherever else you happen to be.

Many people do not do this, they drive to a nearby 'walking areas' such as park, nature area, or trail, walk there, and then drive home. This isn’t necessary, you can just walk out your front door. It is inefficient. You are taking time you could be spending walking, driving. It raises the barrier to entry for a walk. Perhaps more importantly this incorrectly divides the world into 'places to walk' and 'places not to walk' when in fact you can walk more or less everywhere. Walking out your front door opens the whole world to you.

By walking out your front door, your city will reveal itself to you. You will end up places you have never been, possibly places where no one really goes. Ultimately it is much more interesting to head out from where you are and see what you can find, than it is to go somewhere knowing what you will find.

Many walkers walk to spend time in nature. Since we don’t live in nature, we have to seek it out. However, in many cases it is possible to walk to your walk. In the small city where I live, I think nearly every nature spot is a reasonable walk from some place that makes me feel like I'm in nature. Columbia may be above average on this, but it’s really remarkable how small of a barrier between you and the city is needed to feel like you are no longer in it. There’s a good chance you can walk to your nature walk.

Rule 3 has a few more exceptions and caveats than the first two. Don't do this if its going to break one of the first two rules of walking. If you live on a highway, be prudent about walking out your front door, especially at night. In general I am pretty confident in this rule for those living in urban and suburban areas, I am much less sure if it works for those living in rural areas, as I have very little experience living in those places.

Also, this isn't to suggest that going for trips, hikes, climbing mountains, or seeking out special locations should be avoided. Exploring the world is what this blog is all about, and its fun to explore somewhere far away from home. For nearly all of us, most of our time is spent in a single location, our walking practice should start from there as well.

There are other issues I’m not going to go into detail on right now, because they require further explanation. Like how it often doesn’t matter where you walk, since walking is an internal activity. I am also less convinced that walks need to end back at your starting location (although mine usually do). While you should not drive away from your home to go on a walk, walking to a bus stop, taking a bus, and then walking from there seems more defensible, though in practice, I find I don’t enjoy it that much.

Those are my current three rules of walking. Each rule deserves its own post, which I may get to later on. If you would like more on this, or if you have any suggestions for rules or guidelines for walks, please let me know.

Happy Walking!

-Chris

Related Posts: