So, you’re ready to find out is walking the best exercise for you? You just need to know where to walk? Let’s discover some places today.
Why not just around your neighborhood?
If you live in a fairly safe area and feel comfortable going out, there then there’s no reason you can’t just walk around your neighborhood or the surroundings of it. Neighborhoods seems to change definition depending on where you are. I consider my neighborhood basically the area about 1 mile around me.
Depending on what I want to do on that days walk, I can walk to a local grocery store with a backpack or visit a nearby small park. I can start out going one path and come back a different one. I can visit neighbors or look at neighbor changes.
Are there bad things about using your neighborhood? My area is fairly safe. We also have an ok setup for walking. It’s a neighborhood so people don’t tend to be too much of a speed demon. My biggest complaint about using my neighborhood on a regular basis is it can get a bit boring for views. Things don’t change all that much or often in a smaller town.
If you happen to live in a not so safe area or don’t feel comfortable walking there then simply don’t. You may also have to deal with annoying neighbors or their pets. We will cover several other places you can use instead.
Malls
I don’t really know if this is a worldwide or heck even nationwide thing, but everywhere I know of, that has a decent size shopping mall, generally opens fairly early most days- before most shops open, to allow people to walk around. This has some advantages and a few drawbacks.
First, inside a mall or other large indoor area, you should be protected from weather. Also, several other people often take up walking a mall, so you may make new walking buddies. Shop windows often change so you aren’t too likely to get bored with sights overlong. Being in an indoor area, with other people, also gives many a safer feeling for their walks.
A drawback of this setup is you likely will be driving or taking other transport to this area to then walk. This may cause wear or tear on your vehicle or add up in bus, taxi or other fairs. Also, if you’re not a people person, the crowds usually aren’t too bad most of the year but it can feel crowded over time. You also won’t get much of the nature feeling if that is part of what you like about walks.
Tracks
Most towns/cities have a track that is often available for citizens to walk. I know of a couple around our smaller town. The on I’d likely use, if I wanted to, is the one that circles around our local YMCA. Usually, tracks like this will be a pretty set distance, such as a half mile. This can be vert helpful to track distance without using any GPS.
Depending on time of day and availability of spaces and such, these tracks may get semi crowded or be totally empty. I know most of the time when I go to the YMCA or nearby, I see 1-3 people walking or running on the track.
Other places that may offer a usable track are certain hospitals, schools sometimes allow use out of school hours and sometimes larger parks offer a track.
Speaking of parks…
Parks can be decent areas to walk in and around. They vary drastically. Our smaller town has 3 main public parks. One is small and more intimate, with some decent walking paths and park benches. It’s mostly used for ceremonies and family get togethers. One is very much a children’s park, with only a small1/8 mile walk around it. It is right next to the public pool and stays pretty busy. The final one is an older park that doesn’t get much attention or visits. There is some playground equipment and a half decent walkway around it that appears to be about a half a mile because of the turns in it.
Parks can be lovely areas with nice nature scenes such as lakes, trees, flowers and wildlife.
Drawbacks to using parks usually have to do with crowding and locations. If the park is a ways from your home then you again likely will be driving or finding transport there.
This is no where near all the places
There you have several nice places you can get your daily walk in. I, in no way, covered them all. I didn’t even touch on walking inside your own home. We’ll get to that in a different posting. For now, you have some good starting points. So get out there and start walking.
Can’t wait to see you strolling along,
Kimmie