HOW TO WALK TWENTY MILES WITHOUT GETTING TIRED.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 17, Issue 59, 27 July 1906, Page 2

HOW TO WALK TWENTY MILES WITHOUT GETTING TIRED.

The best kind of exercise in the 'world is the most natural kind—walking. Doctors, athletes, physical culturists and mere ordinary mortals all admit this. Yet people will start to do extraordonary contortion exercises at home rather than take a good walk in the open air. It is because they know that to be benefited at all by their walks they must at least go a considerable distance, and few people care to do this for the reason that they have not learned how to walk for hours without fatigue.

It can bo done, however, for the secret is a very simple one, and consists in learning and practising a variety of steps, each one of which brings into play different muscles, so that while you are walking with what you call the drag step you are resting the muscles which are fatigued from the long stride. There are three of these different ways of walking, and any one can learn them in a short time, and find that long distance walking will come a pleasure to be kept up indefinitely once this system of “shifts" is understood. No one set of muscles is allowed to carry the burden of fatigue, as is the case in our ordinary mode of walking, consequently at the end of your long walk you feel no ache or pain in calf of leg or thighs, for the work has been distributed evenly among all the joints and muscles of the limbs.

These three different walking steps we have named,, for convenience’s sake, the stride, the drag and the upstep. Each one of them should he practised a little before starting on a walk of any distance ; but they are easily, learned, and the good sense of this system of “shifts” will appeal to all who have suffered from the weariness caused by walking for miles with the same uniform step. The stride is the first and only one of the different way,s of walking which will really need any practise. For this step the joints should be more flexible than they are in the average person. Joints in the feet, ankles, knees and thighs should feel loose. The ideal of flexibility of this kind is the long, loose forward glide seen in expert n'Jgro dancing. By absolutely relaxing the tcntion in the limbfl and joints this flexibility is easily gained, and after that the stride is merely a long, easy movement forward from the hips. The body is bent forward slightly, knee joints are left loose, but the knee is not bent. There, is no backward movement of the feet behind the body the whole stroke being made from the centre of gravity forward, lifting the leg by the large muscle leading directly over the hips. It will soon be found that this long loose stride is a very much easier method of locomotion than the ordinary walk, and a person using the stride instead of their regular walk can walk twice the distance without feeling tired. As soon as the first signs of weariness begin to be felt it is time to change to the second step —the up-step. An idea of the up-step can be had by watching the movements made while walking up stfiirs. Entirely different muscles are brought into play from those used in the stride. From the knee down no work is put upon the muscles.- The leg is bent at the knee or the foot is lifted flat off the ground, swung without effort, and placed flat on the ground again. The inner thigh muscles are brought into play, and this step can be recommended to those who suffer from disfiguring fatty tissues on limbs hips and abdomen. There is no simpler or better method of reducing these parts than this up-step movement. I do not say that it is particularly graceful,~or that a woman might not attract some attention walking through a crowded throughfare, as if she were, trying to mouiit movable stairs. T will guarantee, however, that the woman who takes a couple of twenty-mile walks during the summer, practising ,this method, will improve her ordinary walk immensely, and gain a lightness of foot and flexibility of movement that make the really graceful walk. There is one more step that I have not described. * This is the drag step. It might be called the Dago walk, having -some resemblance to the shuffle of the Italian workman. This drag step is accomplished by turning the feet outward and forward in the same position. This brings into play the inner muscles of the thigh, and rests the muscles that have been holding and lifting the leg in the other two steps. When a mile or so has been walked, using the drag step, the njusclea controlling the stroke will be found rested and good for more work. In this way a walk may be prolonged indefinitely without undue fatigue. The woman who walks a few minutes daily as a constitutional with a short “hoppity” gait is probably not aware that there is more than one walking step. She can easily-learn them; however, and clad in short skirt, of light weight, with full knickerbockers underneath instead of the encumbering petticoat,i she will find herself capable of walking as many miles as she once could walk blocks, with pleasure to herself and untold profit to her general health. One more way of walking. What is called the racing step requires a side swing to the body, by which the beauty culturist takes off an unnecessary inch to her waistline. In this step first one then the other foot is brought forward with an outward turn, giving the body the necessary swing. '