The 10-Second Walking Test: How Healthy Are You?
"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."
—Thomas Jefferson
A good indicator of your health is how tough you are to kill. You need to have muscle mass, energy, and flexibility (or at least a lack of restriction) throughout your body. These requirements aren’t just for athletes, they’re signs of health for the every-person. But based on the title, how exactly will a walking test tell me if I’m tough to kill? Let me explain.
A person who is easy to kill is the scrawny, low-energy, bent-over person that’s becoming more commonplace by the day. The less obvious signs that might cue you in that someone is unhealthy include points of swelling on their body, breathing through the upper body instead of the belly, and high levels of inflammation which can present as being under- or overweight, anxious or depressed, and skin irregularities.
These are symptoms of poor health but there’s a better way to test your well-being: walking.
The 10-Second Walking Test
Being healthy isn’t a binary thing. There are many factors that separate someone who is fit and flourishing from someone who falls flat. The best indicators tend to be numerical, such as the number of pounds you lift, the number on the stopwatch during a run, the number on the scale, and the numbers on a blood test. Other numbers like age and height are out of your control and should be used as anything but an excuse.
A less objective, but still reliable, way to assess how healthy you are is to simply see what you look like when you walk. Hear me out. This taken-for-granted movement is extremely complex (PTs spend years studying it) and gives input that goes beyond the number of steps you take in the day. Your gait can tell you how tough you are to kill. It’s a window into both how long you’ll live (longevity) and how healthy you’ll be in those years (healthspan). This is how to test your health.
How To Do The Walking Test
We tend not to be aware of our bodies as we move, especially when we’re distracted or in a hurry so the results of this might come as a surprise. I wish I could hold a mirror up to some people’s faces when they’re in a state of deep thinking, worry, or confusion to reflect this.) Show a friend or your significant other this list and have them give their feedback the next time they (naturally) see you walk. Another way to do this is to check yourself out as you walk next to a long mirror or set up a phone to record yourself.
This walking test identifies the 6* destructive things you might be doing with each step that offer a glimpse into your health.
1. Breathe Through Your Mouth
If you keep your mouth open and you’re not talking, you’re a mouth breather. If you’re a mouth breather then you’re “more likely to experience sleep-disordered breathing, fatigue, decreased productivity and poorer quality of life.” (source)
Do this: Become a nasal breather. During the day this just comes down to awareness. During exercise, it becomes more difficult as your brain is screaming, “open your mouth and suck air” The more you do it the better the easier it gets and the better the results. The other difficulty to transition to nasal breathing is when you’re asleep. The best approach is to tape your mouth shut.
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2. Protrude Your Head Forward
A forward head position (also known as tech neck, turtle neck, and excessive cervical kyphosis) can be something you’re born with or due to trauma but given the nature of life today it’s more often due to excessive near work with your hands and eyes (most commonly screen use).
A forward head means you have a muscle imbalance where the front part of your neck and trunk are tight and strong and the back part is weak. This position leads to neck pain, headaches, decreased lung capacity, and an increased risk of disc herniation and neck sprains.
Do this: Take a silhouette picture and look at how far forward your chin is to your chest (or the back of your head to your back). To fix it, hold your phone up at eye level when texting. Use a standing desk with the monitor at eye level or slightly above. Be aware of your posture when moving. Incorporate a combination of lengthening your chest muscles and strengthening your posterior neck and back muscles into your weekly workouts. Sun salutations are a great way to do this.
3. Walk Slowly
Walking is good but walking quickly is better. A slow walking pace has been linked to a higher risk of dementia, worse executive functioning skills, a shorter lifespan, heart disease, cancer, and even having a face that ages more quickly. And these outcomes weren’t just found in older adults either. A faster pace means a higher heart rate which means more blood is pumping throughout the body including to the brain and muscles.
Quick movements like plyometrics, throwing, and even fast walking to a degree, demand recruitment of the central nervous system (CNS) to perform both high-velocity and skilled movements, separate from the amount of strength or endurance you have. In other words, you could be able to walk for miles or have incredible strength but still have poor CNS. CNS activation naturally declines with age (which is why athletes tend to peak in their 20’s or early 30’s) but you can offset this by challenging it.
Do this: Of course, you don’t need to turn into an Olympic speed walker every time you walk outside to the car but picking up the pace when you can will help. Become aware of your natural pace and then incrementally pick it up. If it feels awkward then you’re probably doing it right. We tend to stick to one pace for most of our walking so a movement out of the ordinary needs time to feel normal. Focus on shorter steps and a faster arm swing.
4. Sway Or Tilt Side-To-Side With Each Step
We rely heavily on our core when we walk because it’s the mediator between the constant bipedal shift taken with each step.
Core weakness (which includes the hips and the glutes) while walking leads to the pelvis dropping with each step leading to a slight rocking motion. This abnormal walking pattern is known as a Trendelenburg gait. A weak core can lead to an unstable gait which can lead to back pain, poor breathing patterns, less stability with every movement you do, and a higher risk of falling.
Do this: Stand tall and tighten up your core as you walk. A faster speed (mentioned above) will challenge these core muscles more which will strengthen them in the long run. Also, incorporate core stabilization exercises such as planks, side planks, and bird dogs.
5. Wear Your Emotions On Your Face
Your face consists of 20 muscles that have been pruned, over mllions of years, to communicate very specific emotions. When we’re stressed it tends to show around the eyebrows and the mouth. Look no further than people driving next to you in traffic to see this on full display.
In turn, this muscle activation actually loops back to our nervous system and augments the emotion. This is called the facial feedback hypothesis and it’s why people with very tense facial muscles feel very relaxed after Botox injections or why you feel happy after you smile. Constantly wearing this stress leads to more stress and more stress has downstream effects which can include heart disease, cancer, weight gain, diabetes, and a shorter life.
Do this: Become aware of your emotions through mindfulness meditation. You can also place mirrors in the areas you spend the most time for immediate feedback. Finally, put a pen in between your teeth when you feel stressed or uneasy. This has been shown to turn on the same muscles used in a smile which in turn makes you feel “light-hearted and less serious.”
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6. Wear Sunglasses In The Morning
Getting sunlight to your skin and eyes first thing in the morning can drastically improve your sleep. I talk about the benefits and harms of light in this post and how to use it to your advantage. The TLDR version is that sunlight in the morning is great for many things including your sleep and mood. Blocking that sun with sunglasses can disrupt your circadian cycles and sleep patterns which can lead to impaired focus, low mood, diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
Do this: Get sunlight to your eyes and skin within 30 minutes of waking up (getting it through windows doesn’t count either). If you can’t do that then consider using a therapy lamp (a.k.a happy lamp) for 20-30 minutes in the morning. At the very least, ditch the sunglasses throughout the day.
Bonus: Looking At Your Phone
Looking at your phone while you’re walking means you’re multitasking and not focusing on the now. According to researcher Matt Killingsworth, “one of the most powerful predictors of happiness is something we often do without even realizing it: mind-wandering.”
If you’re looking at your phone you’re also likely craning your neck which links to the first point. And you’re probably walking slower when you check those texts (see above).
Do this: Just enjoy the walk.
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