[Jun]

I am convinced that, pound for pound, functional muscle has a much greater influence on metabolism than "show" muscles. By "show" muscles I mean the kind guys get from muscle isolation weight lifting exercises.

The more "compound" the exercise the better it is. I've seen people tune and upgrade their metabolism with just pushups and/or pullups.

I follow rugby and last year I noticed how remarkably fit the French team were. A rugby chronicler asked the team trainer how they got into such great shape. They were leaner and better conditioned than most teams : they played at a noticeably more rapid pace than most. After being asked a second time, the trainer finally replied "they walk 7 miles a day". Walking is probably the most basic form of exercise: a look at the human skeleton attests to our adaptation to this type of movement. Walking is a highly underrated and over looked exercise. With the good weather we can get in lots of strolls outdoors. Just the influence on your metabolism is worth the price of admission.

[John Peterson]

Hey Jun,

Great post. Walking was also the exercise that Bernarr McFadden emphasized most. He believed it was the single best exercise one could do. Edwin Checkley also taught that walking while performing 'costal breathing' was second to none for health and fitness.


---John Peterson

[Jun]

Hello John,

Thank you for posting those 2 endorsements of walking by such credible fitness advocates.

By any standards, rugby is a very demanding sport. Functional strength rules. The French team attained a level of play in the World Cup final match that I have rarely seen.

Again, the French team trainer gave no other explanation regarding the phenomenal condition the team was in: ................ "They walk 7 miles a day".......is all he said.

The day after watching that unforgettable performance I wrote "Walk" on the cover of my training journal. I have been walking almost daily since then. As an added benefit, I recover a lot faster from exercise than I used to.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/m...l-of-them-all/

[dynogoalie30]

Jun, great post, I have always said that walking is the Rodney Dangerfield of exercise, it does not get the respect it deserves, I worked with a fellow meat cutter who walked 4 miles 6 days a week, and did push-ups and sit-ups, nothing else, and at the time he was 56 yrs. old and was lean and in great shape, he had injured his knee in a skiing accident some years back, so he was not able to run, but he said that walking helped keep him lean as well as a good diet, Tony at one time was a runner, but he still felt that walking did more good for his body than running, some of the most healthist people I have ever met are avid walkers, it is a great exercise.

[duff]

Way back when, walking was an extreme sport called Pedestrianism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrianism

They even had "ultramarathon" length events, funded by betting (like on race horses).