Two Meals a Day by Mark Sisson & Brad Kearns

Author:Mark Sisson & Brad Kearns [Sisson, Mark & Kearns, Brad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2021-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Just F---ing Walk

Just f---ing walk (JFW) is my way of expressing what should form the centerpiece of your daily movement objective. Walking is the quintessential human form of locomotion, and it has been disastrously neglected in modern life. Our primal ancestors walked for miles every single day as an integral part of survival. Dr. Loren Cordain cites research revealing that modern-day hunter-gatherers walk between 3.7 and nine miles each day in search of food, water, and wood. Mothers carry their children for the first four years, logging some three thousand miles. You may have heard the popular recommendation to take ten thousand steps (around five miles) per day? Americans average only half that, amounting to a paltry 2.5 miles per day. This is below what’s needed to avoid the label “sedentary.” Americans are lagging behind countries such as Australia and Switzerland, whose citizens walk nearly twice as far as we do each day. We are certainly far more inactive than our parents’ and grandparents’ generations: after all, traditional Amish farmers walk nearly four times more than their high-tech counterparts today.

While the physical health risks of sedentary living are well publicized, there are also intangible costs when we marginalize walking in modern life. Granted, it’s tough to imagine following in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, who famously stated, “I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagement.” However, we can all reflect on the pointed observation from author Rebecca Solnit in her book Wanderlust: “Walking as a cultural activity, as a pleasure, as travel, as a way of getting around, is fading, and with it goes an ancient and profound relationship between body, world, and imagination.”

Walking is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I experienced a profound revelation after my move from Malibu to Miami Beach. As you may have heard, nobody walks in LA. This is particularly true in Malibu, where the busy Pacific Coast Highway—wholly unfit for pedestrians—is the obligatory route to and from anywhere. My high-density high-rise living in Miami Beach offers the opposite experience. Carrie and I walk everywhere, to the tune of at least five miles each day, not counting our designated workouts. I rarely drive unless I’m headed out of town or catching a ride home via Uber after walking to the supermarket. I feel more connected to my community than I ever did during my car-centric decades in Malibu. I notice that I can process emotions and complex work challenges better when I’m on the move. It also seems like I have a higher baseline of cardiovascular fitness, better posture, more flexibility, and better core stability from which to launch all my other workouts, all thanks to my daily walking habit.

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