Walking is a profound human activity

I wrote a post a few weeks back about walking in which I downplayed the transformational properties of walking.  I am ‘walking’ that back a little today.  Walking is a profound activity for humans; probably for all quadrupeds and bipeds.  Walking is human design at its most obvious.

I recently watched a Netflix documentary about a Mexican woman: Lorena Ramirez.  Ramirez is a native Raramuri Mexican.  She lives with her family in the high canyons of Chihuahua, many miles from their nearest neighbours.  The Raramuri or Tarahumara are famous for their capacity as long distance runners.  Running is how the Raramuri move between communities.  

Ramirez loves to run but running is not at the beginning of her story.  Like any individual who lives a subsistence life, Ramirez's life is made of walking.  For the Raramuri, like their more storied counterparts, the Africans of the Rift Valley, walking is a constant.  There is no data that I can find for this - it would make an illuminating research topic - but my educated guess is that subsistence farmers like the Raramuri would accumulate tens of thousands of steps in an average day.  Moreover, Raramuri children would rise to a daily step count far exceeding that of an adult in a modern Western nation very early in life.

Lorena Ramirez lives in a valley or canyon and her walking (and running) is consequently highly varied.  She is strong and balanced.  There is an obvious rhythm to her movement.  When she runs, it is an extension of her walking gait.  Ramirez is no slouch over half and full-marathon distances but she comes into her own for distances above 60 miles or 100 kilometers.  At these distances, running gait is not concerned with power but with rhythm and balance.  Every system in the body is in harmony and for Ramirez this comes naturally because she has a foundation of millions of walking steps with which metabolic and biomechanical balance was built.  

Herein lies the secret.  As we raise power - increase the rate of work - our bodies must 'know' how to locate balance or harmony to properly harness energy.  Without balance across and within systems, one or more of them will overwork and we experience that as fatigue and discomfort.  It was while watching Ramirez that I saw this.  She holds no expectation of herself when running.  She simply seeks harmony within the act and when it arrives, as it usually does, she is then able to accelerate if that is her wish or stay the course.
There are compelling lessons for all of us through the example of individuals like Lorena Ramirez:

• walking is a profound functional and health platform for the human body
• the more walking we do, the stronger and more adaptable our bodies become
• first seek balance or harmony - physiological and psychological - and then raise power
• moving back down in the gears, to re-establish harmony, is a sensible choice and solution.  Ramirez walks when it is sensible to do so
• harmony reduces wear on the body and 'spends' energy far more effectively and efficiently
• low intensity cardio is the most important training zone with which to build performance
• high volume supercedes and must precede speed and power for mid and long distance runners
• learn to listen to your bodies messages.  Walk-jogging is not weakness, in the moment it is exactly what your body is instructing you to do