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

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However, the chapters and modes of walking can also be accessed randomly, choosing a chapter here and the next week, flipping to another section of the book. most: Walk like a nomad, a meditative practice where you sync your steps with your breaths (3 steps breathe in, 1 step hold in, 3 steps breathe out, 1 step hold out) (perhaps even through your nose). 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 think beyond that, there’s this is very, I think it’s quite primal, sense of connection that you get when you look up and have that night sky above you. 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.

Walking in the rain, for example, is healthy because the air pollution clears up and nature’s molecules move around, she says.The 52 Ways to Walk project was actually the product of over-enthusiastic research. Streets, who also writes as Annabel Abbs, has written several historical novels, all based on real women, like Lucia Joyce, a professional dancer and the daughter of James Joyce; or Frieda Weekley who eloped with DH Lawrence and is considered to be the inspiration for Lady Chatterley. Streets had been working on a nonfiction book, Windswept, where she walked the routes taken by famous women, such as the artist Georgia O’Keeffe or the nature writer Nan Shepherd. “There was memoir and biography and I had also included a lot of scientific research about walking,” she says. “My editor, quite rightly, insisted I remove it.” Rather than let it go to waste, that research was the start of 52 Ways. “Other people, who were much more expert than me on various topics, were very generous with their knowledge and their time,” she says. “There are shelves and shelves of research on walking, but I think people have largely found it unsexy.” 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. A delightful balance of ideas, inspiration and science. The short punchy chapters fit well between walks and make them even more enjoyable’ – Tristan Gooley, author of The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs 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 are all enhanced by how we walk. For instance: When the sun shines down on the water you get twice as much light, so you get twice the serotonin boost’: Annabel Street. Photograph: Kate Peters/The Observer

We might think we know everything we need to about walking but there is always more to discover. This book is about how walking is connected both to old wisdom and new scientific frontiers of discovery … If you're not a habitual walker this book will give you good reasons why you should get started and, if you are experienced, ways to keep it fresh … Fascinating I love walking. I thought there was nothing I needed to learn about it but I learned a lot from this book. I recommend it to anyone looking to enhance their daily walks or to start walking more than they currently do. There is a TON of information in this book about the benefits of walking, and walking in various ways. Our choice of location, time, direction, duration, walking companion and gait, as well as the weather we opt to walk in, can transform our daily stroll. Here, Annabel Streets shares the thrill of 52 different ways to walk, explaining the latest science behind each one, and providing practical tips for making the most of your daily steps. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group Putnam for an advanced copy of this book on the walking lifestyle.

Each chapter in the book is an opportunity to discover a new way of walking. The chapters roughly coincide with annual weather conditions, colder at the beginning and end of the year, and some universally recognized events. Walking had become, once again, the great adventure of my life. But this time science could explain how and why” The book, 52 Ways to Walk by Annabel Streets, carries the subtitle “The surprising science of walking for wellness and joy, one week at a time.” I appreciate the “wellness and joy” aspects of the book. And, I absolutely love the format. My imagination immediately fired up as I read through the book.