Many patients have been advised to walk as their exercise of choice for a certain physical or medical condition. While I have prescribed walking as well for certain conditions it is important to assess each patients symptoms on it’s merits. Walking can irritate certain conditions. We must treat each patient individually and treat them as a whole. I have prescribed walking as it is cheap, accessible, easily measureable, good for mental health, good for osteoporosis prevention and good for cardiovascular fitness. But should you be physically struggling with eg plantar fasciitis or hip tendinitis/bursitis , then temporarily we may need to minimise any aggravating factors which could be your walking. We may need to swim or cycle as an alternative for cardio until your symptoms settle. This limiting of walking is not a permanent situation but often I will need to limit any aggravating activities in the short term (eg walking ) while we work on specific exercises to build up/strengthen any deficiencies.
Once corrected/restrengthened we can then wean back into your exercise of choice/walking. Walking if managed correctly can be an excellent exercise of simplicity especially for any passive lifestyles including computers etc. My only point of note is that it is not always the perfect exercise of choice everytime if we are to treat the patient holistically.
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