Trending for Over 2 Million Years: Walking
Your ancestors walked 10 miles a day. Mainstream fitness culture says that's not enough. They're wrong.
Every few months, there’s a new fitness trend on social media. Whatever’s hot becomes the thing everyone has to try, regardless of whether it actually works for your body.
Proof point: Watch your Instagram and TikTok feed in late December, and you’ll see fitness influencers posting and reposting how to kickstart 2026 with the latest 30-day challenge or transformation program involving extreme HIIT, balance exercises on unstable surfaces, burpee challenges, etc.
But the longest-lasting trend in fitness? Walking.
For over two million years, humans have relied on walking to survive. It’s free. It requires zero equipment by default. But mainstream fitness culture has contributed to a perception that walking is underrated or not as effective as other workouts.
Walking, a fundamental human activity vital to our ancestors’ survival, has become undervalued in a culture that often prioritizes intensity and novelty over consistency and simplicity.
The result? We’re compelled to chase shiny new programs while ignoring what our bodies were built to do.
How walking evolved for me
My relationship with walking started simple: I walked to Dairy Queen every day after school. As an adult, I still walk for things I enjoy—just swapped ice cream for mountain views.
I started with short day hikes in nature. Then longer hikes, until I could day-hike to a peak. I fell in love with the thought of sleeping under the stars, so I started adding weight to those longer hikes—i.e., backpacking—which opened up multi-day trips into the wilderness. That progressed to wanting to go faster so I could see more, which meant going lighter: fastpacking. Now, I’m training for a 26.2-mile ruck (more about this later).
All that’s to say, none of this started with “I’m going to ruck a marathon with 30 lbs on my back.”
It started with walking to something I enjoyed. Then walking farther to see more. Then carrying weight to stay out longer. Then moving faster. Now slower and heavier, but farther than ever.
The box-to-box problem
Most people move from box to box to box.
You sit in your car to get to work. You go from sitting in your car to sitting at your desk. You sit at your desk for eight hours. Then you sit in your car to get home, where you sit on the couch or lie down in bed. Repeat.
But your body wasn’t designed for this. Walking is how you open that box.
For over two million years, humans moved constantly—hunting, gathering, migrating, surviving. Movement wasn’t exercise. It was life. Estimates suggest ancestral humans walked around 10 miles a day—roughly 20,000 steps. Walking wasn’t exercise. It was survival.
Now we’ve optimized convenience at the expense of what our bodies need. And the damage compounds:
Your metabolism slows down
Your body stops burning fat efficiently
Insulin sensitivity decreases
Inflammation increases
Your joints stiffen
Muscles atrophy
Cardiovascular fitness declines
Walking reverses this pattern. Here’s how:
Fat loss without metabolic damage. Walking burns calories without triggering excessive hunger. It’s sustainable for daily practice. It doesn’t interfere with recovery from strength training. You can do it in addition to gym work, not instead of it.
Joint health and longevity. Walking is low-impact, unlike running, which is great for midlife women and men. It lubricates joints through natural movement; builds supporting muscles around knees, hips, and ankles; and reduces injury risk compared to high-impact activities.
Metabolic health. Walking improves insulin sensitivity. It helps regulate blood sugar and increases NEAT—Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis—the movement that happens outside formal workouts. Walking also keeps your metabolism active throughout the day.
Mental clarity and stress reduction. Walking gets you outside, away from screens. Think of it as natural stress relief. It improves your sleep quality; and gives you time to think, process, decompress. Studies show walking has significant mood-boosting effects and anxiety reduction benefits that fitness culture often overlooks in favor of purely physical metrics.
Cardiovascular health without overtraining. Walking strengthens your heart and lungs gradually. It doesn’t spike cortisol like intense cardio can. Plus, it’s sustainable long-term—you can walk daily for decades.
Your body needs movement that doesn’t break it down. Walking builds you up.
Walking is sustainable. You can do it every day without needing recovery days. And it complements strength training perfectly—you can lift heavy and walk daily without one interfering with the other.
Walking is fitness that fits into real life.
How your body adapts to walking
Your body adapts to stress. When you challenge it consistently, it gets stronger to prepare for next time. This is called progressive overload.
Here’s how progressive overload works:
Walk 15 minutes regularly. Your body adapts over time. A few weeks later, 30 minutes feels manageable.
You carry 10 lbs in a backpack or weight vest during your walking this month. Your muscles and connective tissue adapt. Next month, you can handle 15 lbs.
You walk a mile this week. Next week, 1.5 miles feels manageable.
The adaptation happens in your:
Cardiovascular system (heart and lungs get more efficient)
Muscles (they get stronger to handle the load)
Connective tissue (tendons and ligaments adapt to support the movement)
Metabolic system (your body learns to use energy more efficiently)
Four ways to progressively overload
Distance – Walk farther over time
Speed – Walk faster (but don’t run)
Weight – Add load to a backpack or vest (start with 5-10 lbs, never exceed 25% of your body weight)
Incline – Walk uphill or on more challenging terrain
You don’t need to do all four at once. Pick one or two and focus there.
Walking vs. high-intensity exercise: the long-term reality
Research shows that walking and running produce similar long-term health benefits when you burn similar amounts of calories. A 30-minute run and a 60-minute walk might burn the same energy - and both reduce your risk of high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.
Walking has lower injury risk. Can be done for longer periods. Can be done daily for decades.
High-intensity exercise is efficient for specific goals—maximizing calorie burn in short time periods.
But for long-term health? Both work. The difference is which one your body can structurally handle and sustain.
Starting from nothing
Where you start with your walking journey depends entirely on where you are right now.
After my knee and ankle surgeries, I had to re-teach my body how to walk.
I could run a 5K in 22 minutes before the surgeries. After? I could only walk ONE CITY BLOCK in 22 minutes. That’s where my body was.
Not where I wanted to be. Not where I used to be. Where I actually was. And that’s exactly where I needed to start.
This is how your body adapts to anything you want to build. You start where you are, not where you wish you were.
You can’t think your way into a better body—you have to live it through consistent action.
Coming back from injury or surgery? Start with where your body actually is, like I did with (very) slow, steady walks around the block.
Haven’t walked regularly in years? Maybe 10 minutes is your starting point.
Already walking daily? Add weight.
Already backpacking? Ruck between trips.
Just walk
For midlife women and men, simplicity is an advantage, not a weakness.
Walking doesn’t demand perfect conditions, special equipment, or hours of free time. It fits into real life because it is real life.
Start today:
Assess where you are honestly
Walk at that level consistently
Add small increases over time
Trust the process
I’m training for a 26.2-mile ruck/walk right now, and building a complete custom training plan because none exist for what I want to do. That’s coming Friday.
If you want to take walking to the next level, I’ll show you exactly how to build toward bigger goals.
For now: Just walk.
Questions, comments, and suggestions?
Thanks for reading,
-Marek
