How to Walk, with Karl Henry
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1. You're all very, very welcome back. And now we're going to talk about walking. It's a form of exercise that's often dismissed, but it can actually really have fantastic health benefits. And personal trainer Carl Henry is with me now to tell us why. Carl, you're very, very welcome to the show.
What are the health benefits of walking as exercise?
Terrible. Buen Camino. I'm over in Santiago in Spain talking to you. How are you?
I know. Buen Camino. And you've actually done a route I haven't yet done, which is the Portuguese Camino. How was that?
It was amazing. We just finished yesterday with 100 people over here with us. And you know what? It was five days of just time. It's the gift of time. It's a bit of hard work. There's a few hills. There's a lot of trails. But it's when you come into Santiago after five days of hiking and really have to work hard for it. It's an amazing experience. How many blister packs have you gone through? Well, my job is to mind my group of 100 people. So we had about 20 packs of blister plasters all the way across, loads of Vaseline and lots, lots more. But we minded everybody and we got them there, thankfully. A few sore feet today, but everyone's safe.
How many kilometres roughly were you doing?
We covered about 110. The Portuguese is a little shorter than the French way. So it's about 110 kilometers. So each day you're talking 20, 22, 23 kilometers, depending on the day and where the hotels are and stuff.
How does walking on the Camino differ from regular walking?
So there's a lot of work in it. But unlike walking at home where you might go for a walk over here when you're on the Camino, it's much more chilled. It's much more relaxed. You stop for coffee whenever you want. You stop to enjoy and appreciate things whenever you want. And there's no major time pressure. So it's a lot slower than walking at home. But that quantity of time when your feet can prove challenging for people. And we had two days of rain at the start and three days of glorious sunshine. And when the sunshine came, feet started to swell over the course of the day. Hence the blisters. But it's a great adventure. It's a great crack.
You are obviously a big advocate of walking, which is a form of exercise that is available, thankfully, to most of us. Remind us of the key benefits of it.
Although there's nothing it doesn't do. I think sometimes when we think of exercise, we look for the complicated, the new, the difficult, the expensive. Walking is the elixir of health. It's something we've always done. It's something that's so available. It's so accessible. It's good for our bones. It's good for our heart health. It's good for our cholesterol levels. It's good for our muscle mass. It's good for our aging. There's nothing walking won't improve, even like down to sleep, stress levels. We forget how simple it is and how easy it is. But we also forget just how beneficial it is, whether it's a stroll, which is a form of exercise, or whether it's walking at more intensity, which gives you more benefits.
Both deliver so many benefits. And the beauty of it is it is free. it's a choice that you know you're presented with we call them otms right they're opportunities to move so for example when i go to dublin uh for work i get the train from cork i live in clark guilty now speak up i go from the train i'll be into houston i will choose to walk to wherever i have to go to as opposed to getting a taxi or getting a bus or getting the lewis so it's taking those choices when they present themselves taking the stairs for example in the airport or in a shopping center parking your car further away from wherever you're meant to be, whether it's work or travel. They're all OTMs and we call that strolling, which is really beneficial.
What should you know about preparing for long walks?
It's really good for you.
But what's the sweet spot? Like, I mean, you know, I know we've been through the whole 10,000 steps a day, but, you know, should you be getting your heart rate up? Should you be a little bit breathless when you walk? Where do the real sort of, I suppose, those big strategic benefits kick in?
Okay, so there are benefits to strolling, right, which is low-intensity exercise.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:20
2
What are the health benefits of walking as exercise?
0:20–1:22
3
How does walking on the Camino differ from regular walking?
1:22–3:20
4
What should you know about preparing for long walks?
3:20–5:29
5
What are the key benefits of walking for overall health?
5:29–9:12