What Walking Really Does for Our Aging Bodies

We understand walking’s positive effects. Walking increases blood flow, strengthens bones, improves blood pressure, and provides cardio for the heart if we set a good pace. Walking clears out the cobwebs in our brains, creates clearer thinking, and relieves depression.

As I stated in my first book, Walking Gone Wild, How to Lose Your Age on the Trail, walking is in our DNA. As humans, we are meant to walk, and as we do it, we strengthen our humanness. I could stop now, urging you to incorporate daily walks, improving yourself thereby. Today, I intend to share something different.

I want to talk to you about walking and aging.

Society tells women as they age to be careful, to take it easy, to preserve energy, as if energy and health are deposits in a bank account we can build up and use up over our lifetime. Yes, we can build or keep our health by eating well, exercising, and getting good sleep. By doing so, our energy will increase. But we cannot build our health and then drain it as if it were a retirement account.

Growing older involves a deepening experience, a period where diminishing resources require careful management for sustained well-being. To grasp this deepening, this increased insight, this wise management, I want to uncover the lies society has told women over 60.

Lie #1: You Should Slow Down

As if strength and energy have an end date. Slowing down increases awareness. But slowing your pace as you walk doesn’t build strength nor improves your cardio fitness. Nothing told me to slow down after 60. I did more physically than I had done in the earlier decades, and now that I am almost 80, I reap the benefits from not buying into that lie.

Lie #2: Your Strongest Years Are Behind You

As if vitality belongs only to youth. Vitality, life force, is with you till the day you die. Vitality isn’t this magical elixir that springs up in your body. Engaging with life, employing your body and mind, pursuing joy, plus connecting with like-minded individuals cultivates your vitality. Vitality arises when you are creative, when you tap into the bigger forces that flow through and around you and use them to create a meaningful life.

Lie #3: Your Body Is Fragile

As if your body cannot adapt, change, and grow. You have watched scrapes heal. At age 60+ you’ve probably healed from surgery or an accident. The body is a wonderful system that can regenerate. We now know that the brain and nervous system can regenerate. So stop holding back out of fear of breaking.

Healing may be slower after 60, but stories of women taking their health into their hands abound. You’ve heard tales of weight loss, improved ability through exercise, PT, and yes, from relaxation and stress reduction. My skin wrinkles, my veins pop out, but my hand strength serves me well; I can lift a 40-lb bag when I want. As I do these things, my body adapts and improves. I may not be as quick, I may breathe a little harder, but I don’t feel fragile.

Lie #4: Adventure Is for the Young

As if courage has an age limit. My 60s saw more travel plus adventurous endeavors than nearly any other 10-year span. Facing aging is an adventure. Doing anything that takes you into the unknown takes courage. Aging with zest takes courage.

I started hiking the Pacific Crest Trail when I was 65; finished the 2650 miles when I was 75. Each year, a section, one step at a time. Backpacking and hiking had me in their grip, and I wanted to experience the breadth and depth of it. Hiking the trail kept me in good physical shape. It was an adventure, and I found confidence and trust along the way.

Lie #5: It’s Too Late to Begin Something New

As if becoming ever stops. Will you become a stooped elderly woman, confined to her chair, gazing out the window constantly? Because becoming is happening. Do you want to try something you’ve never done before and live to tell the tale?

I started writing when I retired from my day job at age 67. I wrote about what I had lived through and what I knew. Now, three books later, my mind is happy when I write. I don’t worry about getting Alzheimer’s. I’ve built a circle of readers and followers; I inspire and I have something creative to do when I am tired from a long hike.

What we’re told holds no truth. Vitality deepens with interest and attention. Strength grows with movement. Becoming does not expire. The process may slow as we age, but the slower pace offers the deepening, the savoring, and the reflecting that prepares us for an easier transition into the next realm.

Let’s Chat:

Have you slowed down as you aged? Do you save your energy or use it? What for? What adventures have you taken since you turned 60? Have they made you feel stronger or weaker?