Only 50% of middle age adult manage more than 1 brisk 10 min walk a month.

MawsRosie

Maybee - have you tried walking poles? These might increase your confidence, improve your balance and (let’s face it ) would add to,your image as a serious walker!
I would as my balance can be iffy, but I have yet to work out how to cope with even 1 pole let alone 2 plus a greyhound’s lead!

Would it work if you put Rosie’s lead on a belt around your waist Maw

Would joining in with a free YouTube exercise video perhaps help some of you who are struggling? There are all sorts of videos on there, for all sorts of different types of exercise, and for all abilities.

Maybee - have you tried walking poles? These might increase your confidence, improve your balance and (let’s face it ) would add to,your image as a serious walker!
I would as my balance can be iffy, but I have yet to work out how to cope with even 1 pole let alone 2 plus a greyhound’s lead!

travelsafar

I guess there are many older people myself included, who would dearly love to go on a hike or a decent walk but their physical state wont allow.
Please dont think we are all lazy.
Prior to having mobility issues I use to run 3 times a week and walk or cycle as much as I could and time allowed.
It breaks my heart that I have lost this ability.😪😪

Me too. I'm actually in a sort of denial about it which is why I tend not to try to walk outside of the house because I find it so upsetting. It was when I considered getting a mobilty scooter a few months ago that I admitted to myself that I had a problem. Mind you a friend of mine who is at least a generation older than me had to have both legs removed many years[probably decades] ago. And, of her peer group she's one of the few that is still alive and still active. She takes her dog out every day and runs the pub quiz.

( I suppose I’m not middle aged any more - but I’m definitely not elderly!)

I wonder how the 10 minutes is measured? Is it only specific recorded walks for instance?
BBC article talks about recording 30 minute daily brisk walks.
I walk 30+ miles a week - but I rarely record my walks on my sports watch because all other functions - such as telling me the time then stop. It can count steps in the background whilst still functioning as a watch. Also a lot of walking is normal running around - in the house, or to the supermarket or pharmacy, without going out for a specific brisk walk.
Where has this 10 minute figure come from - can anyone point me to the research please?

My walking is bad, too.
I'm trying to build it up, bit by bit, though.

I think this is mainly aimed at middle-age. I have read before that those who are active in middle age tend to do better in old age.

I guess there are many older people myself included, who would dearly love to go on a hike or a decent walk but their physical state wont allow.
Please dont think we are all lazy.
Prior to having mobility issues I use to run 3 times a week and walk or cycle as much as I could and time allowed.
It breaks my heart that I have lost this ability.😪😪

I can’t. Can’t even face walking to the end of my road. But have done 20 minutes on my daughter’s walking machine ( 1 1/2 miles an hour but with a stiff gradient). I do have to look at my feet as I walk though; tried looking ahead and found myself walking sideways. Wish I had room or the money for one as I’m addicted to it especially if I play some good music. When I used to go to my local gym ( very cheap membership) it was always full and the park next to it was a hive of activity so if you give people the opportunity to exercise they will. I thought the government were going to have a campaign to get people healthier other than giving them statins or ozempic? And it should start in schools, too.

MayBee70

I can’t walk outside of my house. This is from being someone that walked everywhere, never used lifts etc. It really worries me. I’m shocked at that statistic, though. I always thought that we’d follow America health/obesity wise though and sad to see it happen.

Start at just 5 minutes down the road and back and over the course of weeks very gradually lengthen it if possible.

Iam64

I’m recovering from chronic fatigue thst followed a series of infections in February. I usually walk two or three miles a day but that’s impossible. I’m managing a gentle half hour but I’m shocked by how quickly my leg muscles diminished by days when I sat or dosed much of the time

Walking is usually a real pleasure. Anyway onwards and upwards, I’ll be strolling with the dogs in half an hour

Yes I also suffer from that, and have done since my late 40s. When it rears it’s head after any viral infection or I simply overdo it. I am just getting over a bout after having viral bronchitis 6 weeks ago, still needing to rest though.

But once I am better I am planning to up my exercise as I’ve lapsed since losing my dog.

I was told that I should look at my energy reserves as only ever being 50% full, and never use up so much today that I have no reserve for tomorrow. It is a difficult discipline though especially when I’m feeling well.

But I’m going for the 30 minute a day eventually, but advised to start at 10 minutes a day of brisk walk once I’m up to speed after this bout of fatigue, then very gradually lengthen the time.m

Ah, «middle aged and older « that’s different.
But in any case, define middle aged. Nobody in their 40’s or 50’s would thank you - but that’s you!
Maybe up to 60, but let’s face it, we’re old, elderly, senior if you prefer the euphemism!
I agree that average trolley-pushing speeds in supermarkets are hardly a bench mark!
Instead, look at attendance and indeed the age spread at weekly park runs.
Anyway I refuse to be guilt tripped except by Rosie when it comes to to walkies, and you can see how keen she is at the moment.

It may be true that ^"only 50% of adults" get one brisk walk a month, but there are several questions here if in the same breath we learn that there is a campaign to get "middle-aged and older" people to walk more..

How many adults are middle-aged and older, and how many are younger than middle-aged? The former are more likely to have age-related physical reasons for not walking briskly any more, so to include them with twenty-year-olds is rather youthist. My own legs don't move as fast and smoothly as I'd like, and it isn't because of lack of use.

Why does a walk have to be brisk? Sago says *"there are people in front of me leaning over their trollies walking at a snails pace, I do wonder how they burn any calories!"* but perhaps those trolley-pushers are not there to burn calories but to get essential groceries. I have a relative in her nineties who used to work miles a day in her work, but now is wobbly on her feet and has a leg ulcer. She refuses to have her shopping delivered. Instead, she gets a taxi once a week to the supermarket, where the taxi-driver fetches a trolley for her and she shops using that as a zimmer. When she has paid for her goods (by card) she phones for the taxi to return for her and pushes her trolley out to it. Slowly!

I can’t walk outside of my house. This is from being someone that walked everywhere, never used lifts etc. It really worries me. I’m shocked at that statistic, though. I always thought that we’d follow America health/obesity wise though and sad to see it happen.

dogsmother

I enjoy my walking too, refuse to count steps as it becomes a bit obsessive and unnecessary in my view. I do occasionally look at the counter. In my phone as it’s usually with me, but at one point I was wearing a fitness watch so I didn’t miss any steps and that I think was too much.

I recently counted (myself, not with any gadget) over 900 steps just to the bus stop, which isn’t far.

Besides actual walks, I get more exercise courtesy of my bus pass, than I ever did walking back and forth to the car!

Ten minutes a month? I do more than that most days. In fact, a walk for me is between one and two hours. And I'm physically active even if I don't leave the house.

I do understand of course how someone's lack of mobility, through illness / disability, affects their ability to go for a brisk walk. Or a walk at all. But if someone is physically capable of walking, it's in their interest to do so. Muscle wastage as we get older is something we should try to combat if able to do so.

I walk my dog daily and swim in an outdoor pool every evening,bar Christmas Day,about 1,000 m,also swim once a week in a quarry.I am 78,it is really vital to keep moving.Most of my friends have mobility issues,but not one of them does any exercise.

Always my favourite poem

Observations
1. We are mostly not «middle aged» that ship sailed around 60+. Wake up and smell the coffee!
2. Not everybody is in a hurry. Who walks around with a shopping trolley to burn calories?
3. Anybody spending more than 5 minutes with grandchildren (unless babes in arms) is burning calories! Even with tinies, we’re striding out with prams or buggies to get the little dears off to sleep. If dawdling, it’s to talk to them, pointing out horsies, doggies,trees, flowers or little lambs in fields.
4.As they say, not every disability is visible -so slower walkers might be trying to remember where the heck they parked the car, whether they remembered the yogurt or getting their breath back.
So while I believe that many people do not take a brisk walk for exercise, I see plenty scurrying to and from trains, buses or the underground, trying not to be mown down by cyclists or getting across the road ahead of the traffic. If asked, they would probably not class this as exercise though
.
Finally ( and phew, at last!)

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

My DH is disabled but can and must walk with the aid of his stick and my arm every day, we were avid walkers before his stroke and though we don’t get very far we do several short walks a day, extending the route every time if we can.
Were told it is essential to brain recovery and in general good physical and mental health to walk, of course some are unable to but even those who struggle like my DH should be trying to walk. To begin with, in hospital, he was coached, urged, and cajoled into an upright position, and then to walk with a wheelie frame, one painful step every minute or so. This was over a 2 month period. The reason they do this is because anyone who works in the health system knows that walking is key to recovery and also to good health.
If my DH can do this, one faltering step after another, those more able bodied should be out there walking as often and as briskly as they can. If time is the problem they could try just walking to places nearby they would normally drive to.

I do a fair bit of walking on and off the golf course . Last week we were on holiday in Puglia on an escorted tour walking every day. i already had bursitis and tendonitis but stupid me went ahead when Dh would have liked to cancel the holiday. So I am paying for it now. I juts hope it settles down if I am careful for a while. Too much walking can be a bad thing in my case.

We walk about 4 miles most days. Used to be more but getting on a bit now!

I have two sons. One doesn't have a car and walks everywhere,
the other doesn't walk much at all.

You can tell by looking at them which is which!

I have arthritis in both hips but still walk for an hour on most days. I used to be able to walk for longer.
I have always done quite a lot of walking and did a job that was mostly on my feet all day.
I always found it funny that people would park as close to the entrance of shops even the gym to avoid walking.

Never mind ‘middle age’.

I go to aquacise classes, I bet I am much fitter than some of the younger ones there, probably in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s. (I’m in the 70’s category).

They just don’t do much, very lethargic, I know it’s up to us how much we put into it, but honestly…..