For more detailed information review our Good Walking Technique section.

Remember to...

• Warm up and stretch. Like your car, you need to warm up your body at the beginning of your walk. Unlike your car, you need to cool down your body after your walk by doing the same stretches. Feel free to review our Stretching Exercises and Chair Exercises if you need to.
• Dress for the season. Wear clothing in layers if appropriate and always dress for visibility. If you plan on a day hike or out for a walk for several hours, be prepared for a change in the weather. Take along an extra pair of socks, gloves or even a toque and be prepared if you are out in the back country.
• Take along a good supply of drinking water and keep rehydrated when walking in the sun. Wear a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. Protect yourself from the weather. Make it a habit to keep all these things in a pack... ready to be taken whenever you go for your walk this summer.

Let’s not forget footwear - your most important equipment. Keep reading to learn how to choose the best walking shoes for you in the Tip Of The Month section below.

Great Idea

Whether you walk by yourself, with a group or take your dog* on your walks, here are some other walking ideas you may find of interest.

Check for local group, clubs and organization that do walks and hikes in your community. Start with a local recreational club or community center. A great way to meet new people and add new zest to your walks.

Charity Walks

If you're a regular walker and reasonably fit, you might want to consider walking for charity. It’s a great way to help an organization, both through the money raised and the awareness created. Maybe keep it local and organize a walk yourself or with others. Raising money for your neighborhood school or hospital is a great way of getting involved in your community. Don’t forget to contact your friends, family, neighbors or workplace friends (if you're still working) and get them involved too.

Walking Events

If you are looking for scheduled events, here is a good place to start for our US Friends.

American Volksport Federation

We hope you find these links of value. Do you know of other events happening in your part of the world? Let us know. We'd love to share it with all our readers.

Have a "special” walking adventure you'd like to share? Tell the world and get your own personal web page to do it!

Tip of the month

Choose The Best Walking Shoes

Your shoes...the most important equipment for walking and hiking. This topic is so important that we dedicate over a dozen pages to it on our main site. Try as we might we just can't squeeze all that into one or two 'hot' tips for shoe selection. There's just too darn much involved.

Please spend some time and read over the whole section. Choosing The Best Walking Shoes For You. There's important stuff there from knowing the 'secret' to knowing the different types of shoes, picking just the right shoe for you, fitting your shoes properly, choosing the right socks for your type of walking and looking after your shoes properly.

A bit of work the first time but well worth your while in the longer term. Your old bod and your feet will thank you for it over and over.

And as promised last month here's a short list of our favorite shoes. We're biased. When we pick the best walking shoes for ourselves we're huge fans of quality. Quality shoes pay for themselves many times over in the long run - in superior performance, comfort, durability and longer life. Besides - at our age we just darn well deserve the best!

We're most knowledgeable on, once sold and have worn for years shoes by ECCO, Keen, Vasque and Mephisto.

That's all for this month. We hope these tips will be of value to you.

Enjoy your spring! Walk everyday and keep fit for your health's sake.

See you in June when we'll talk about the different types & styles of walking and share our recent walking adventure in the high Andes.


Your walking partners,

Yoko and Geoff

PS - Hmmm. Maybe you’ve gotten a little fuzzy on why walking is so gosh darn good for you? Drop by our Benefits of Walking page again!

PPS - Remember that we welcome your walking stories, hiking tales and tall tales too! Share yours with us, be published on your very own web page and maybe even win some neat prizes!