52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time

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Walking strengthens our bodies, calms our minds and lifts our spirits. But it does so much more than this. Our vision, hearing, respiration, sleep, cognition, memory, blood pressure, sense of smell and balance (to name a few) are all enhanced by how we walk. For instance: With hearing, I was fascinated to discover some of the science behind the sounds we hear so the most relaxing sound for most people is actually the sound of water … but the most uplifting sound is actually birdsong.” If you’re not a regular walker and would like to start exercising more, 52 Ways To Walk will show you how to get started.

For Streets, it was a spark, a gleeful rekindling of an old love affair. “Walking had never seemed more beguiling or thrilling,” she writes in the book’s introduction. Her friends, and especially her family, didn’t catch the same vibe. It was wet. It was cold. It was boring. It was slow. It was just… walking. As a person who walks for both physical and mental health, rather than a particular destination, Annabel Streets' 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time is both an inspiration, and a revelation. I knew that walking made me feel better, especially during these super trying times, but I wasn't sure why, nor how I could make a walk around my neighborhood more interesting.

Annabel grew up in a carless family. Her father never learned to drive and her mother failed her driving test seven times. The family lived in remote places without access to public transportation, so if they needed something, they walked to obtain it. An inspiring guide to walking each week of the year, with 52 science-based essays on how, when, where and why to do it.

This short, enthusiastic guide extollingwalking’s mental and physical benefits, and will motivate you to get outside and move, step by step, all year.”— AARP I can never understand why people out walking in the countryside wear earbuds. Take them out and listen to the birds, the trees rustling in the wind, the babbling brook, and you won’t make other walkers feel awkward when they speak to you by having to wait while you take them out! Dr Kate McLean has mapped smellscapes across the world in a variety of environments. Google her to see her extraordinary maps. Smells are enhanced by rainfall so walk in the rain or just after a shower. Walking beside rivers or amongst trees has many health benefits, including reducing stress levels. It’s suggested that we sing or dance while we walk but I won’t be doing that any time soon, even if it’s only my dog that can hear me! Good to know though that as an ‘older dog owner’, walking him is improving my brain health. There is another chapter where the author notes she lost her sense of smell due to COVID but then later in the chapter tells us she went on "smell walks" with the aforementioned lost sense. So either this book needed another edit to not allow readers to misconstrue these chapters, or the readers are being lied to.People who studied this in walking meetings found that people who moved are able to come up with more ideas, it’s almost as though the movement shakes your brain a bit and you start to make connections… through different parts of your memory, different parts of your brain that you don’t when you’re sitting down.” There’s more and more studies and data showing that pollution, particularly the smaller pollution PM2.5, is particularly bad for us, it’s been linked to all sorts of things from Alzheimer’s to brain fog to respiratory disease. Streets recommends using your peripheral vision and scanning your landscape before you walk, because research has found lifting your gaze can help you relax. What I appreciate also about the book is the ability to keep the walks interesting by playing a random game. One of the primary reasons people don’t continue a walking practice is boredom. And I get it. Walking the same route the same way becomes more of a mindless activity. I love that 52 Ways to Walk offers a fresh walking activity every week. Walking strengthens our bodies, calms our minds and uplifts our spirits. We know this intuitively, and recent years have seen an explosion of scientific and evidence-based research to substantiate that.