Did you mean: walking, The Walking Company Holdings, Inc. (Public Company), walk, The Walking (1988 Album by Jane Siberry), Walking (1968 animated film), Walking (Thoreau) More...
Dictionary:
walk·ing (wô'kĭng)  |
| 5min Related Video: Walking |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: walking |
For more information on walking, visit Britannica.com.
| World of the Body: walking |
Walking is an activity that we normally take for granted; we consciously start or stop, and give attention to avoidance of obstacles, but otherwise this complex, co-ordinated procedure is seemingly simple and automatic.
Walking, in technical terms, is a form of bipedal (or quadripedal) progression in which there are periods of double support, when both feet are on the ground, alternating with periods of single support. This distinguishes walking from faster gaits in which ground contact is absent for brief periods. Whilst it is commonplace, its mechanics and neurological control are complex. Many neurological disorders affect walking efficiency.
Events in both limbs are essentially identical but are phase shifted. The sequence of events in the right limb begins with heel contact with the ground. At this point the left foot is still on the ground (the first phase of double support). The body moves forward and the centre of gravity passes in front of the left toes. At this point the weight is supported by the right limb alone, the left limb flexes and swings forward. The left limb begins to extend later in the swing phase, causing left heel contact with the ground. This initiates a second period of double support, which is followed by the swing phase in the right limb terminating in right heel contact. The smooth forward movement of the centre of gravity includes lateral movements so that the centre of gravity lies over the right foot during single support on that limb. There are symmetrical leftward sways during left limb stance. In addition, the centre of gravity rises and falls by some 50 mm.
Young adults typically select a range of normal walking speeds of between 80 and 100 metres per minute. This corresponds to a stride length of about 1.4 m, i.e. a step length of 0.7 m, and a stride duration of about 1 second. The duration of the stance phase for each foot is about 0.65 second. The peak vertical force rises to about 120% of body weight during the stance phase.
Limb muscles generally show single bursts of activity during each step. Extensor (leg straightening) muscle activity typically begins just before heel contact to prepare the limb for load bearing, whilst flexor muscle activity is confined to the swing phase after toe-off, to allow the limb to swing through to its new landing position. The bulk of the forward propulsive force comes from a second short burst of activity in the knee and ankle extensors just before toe-off.
The patterns of muscle activity during walking are generated by networks of neurons located in the spinal cord and accorded the description central pattern generator. These networks, which generate a simple locomotor rhythm, draw upon, and are influenced by, reflexes evoked by sensory inputs from the muscles, skin, and joints, particularly the hip joint. In many animals — the cat, dog, rat, and mouse, for example — and for swimming movements in fish, this locomotor network can express its rhythmic activity entirely independently of control from higher centres in the brain, hence the other name, spinal locomotor centre. In the case of the rabbit the movement is a bilaterally synchronous ‘hopping’ movement. Attempts to demonstrate that such mechanisms can be activated in (spinal man) (when the spinal cord is cut off by injury from the higher parts of the nervous system at a level above the segments that control walking) have however failed. If they could have been elicited it would have facilitated the development of prosthetic devices that could enable spinal man to walk. As it is, even extremely complicated computer control aimed at stimulating muscles with the same pattern as in natural walking has been only partially effective; this emphasizes the importance of the control exerted by the brain despite the automated nature of walking. Nevertheless, it remains likely that when one wishes to walk, or to stop walking, the commands issued from the brain are actually turning on, or off, a spinal pattern generator comparable to that demonstrated in animals.
— R. H. Baxendale
See also gait; movement, control of; posture.
| Food and Fitness: walking |
Walking is one of the most popular exercises. It has many benefits. It is a low-impact exercise with very little risk of injury; it requires the minimum of special equipment (good shoes and loose-fitting clothing are usually sufficient); the whole family can take part; and it has the added advantage of being socially acceptable for women and older people.
Many people believe that only strenuous exercise has health benefits. This is not true. Exercise no more exhausting than a brisk walk can lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Walking about 10 miles (16 kilometres) per week at about 60 per cent maximum aerobic capacity, is enough for the heart to benefit, and, cardiologists estimate, may reduce the risk of heart attack by half.
Walking can improve aerobic fitness, as long as it is done fast enough. As you walk faster, you can expect to improve your aerobic fitness at a higher rate. Strolling at 20 minutes per mile pace is likely to improve your maximum aerobic capacity (VO2 max) by no more than 5 per cent; walking at 15 minutes per mile pace may almost double that improvement; and if you walk very fast (at 12 minutes per mile pace), your VO2 max may improve as much as 15 per cent. Benefits gained from fast walking can be as good as those derived from running, cycling, or swimming. Very fast walking is sometimes called power walking. Some people use hand weights to increase the resistance and to develop upper body muscles. These weights are generally not effective unless they are used in an exaggerated way that disturbs the stride pattern and increases the risk of injury.
If you wish to walk to improve health:
• walk at least three times a week
• start with a 1 mile (1.6 km) and walk at a slow pace (20 minutes per mile)
• add a quarter of a mile (400 m) a week until you can walk three miles easily.
This will be enough to improve your health, but if you wish to improve your aerobic fitness you will need to increase your pace gradually. Aim to do one of the three miles in 15 minutes, then two, and finally all three. When you have achieved this, aim to do one mile in 12 minutes, and so on. Be patient. It will take about six months before you feel the real benefits of your training.
| Sports Science and Medicine: walking |
Locomotion in which the body is moved in a particular direction while maintaining foot-contact with the ground.
| Veterinary Dictionary: walking |
A normal slow gait in all species.
| Word Tutor: walking |
Jim likes walking to school alone.
| Quotes About: Walking |
Quotes:
"When one walks, one is brought into touch first of all with the essential relations between one's physical powers and the character of the country; one is compelled to see it as its natives do. Then every man one meets is an individual. One is no longer regarded by the whole population as an unapproachable and uninteresting animal to be cheated and robbed."
- Aleister Crowley
"If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he can't go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking -- one sport you shouldn't have to reserve a time and a court for."
- Edward Hoagland
"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
"The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk."
- Mark Twain
| Wikipedia: Walking |
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2009) |
Walking (also called ambulation) is the main form of animal locomotion on land, distinguished from running and crawling.[1][2] When carried out in shallow waters, it is usually described as wading and when performed over a steeply rising object or an obstacle it becomes scrambling or climbing. The word walk is descended from the Old English wealcan "to roll".
Walking is generally distinguished from running in that only one foot at a time leaves contact with the ground; for humans and other bipeds, running begins when both feet are off the ground with each step. (This distinction has the status of a formal requirement in competitive walking events, resulting in disqualification at the Olympic level.) For horses and other quadrupedal species, the running gaits may be numerous, and while walking keep three feet at a time on the ground.
The average human child achieves independent walking ability around 11 months old.[3]
For humans, walking is the main form of transportation without a vehicle or riding animal. Although walking speeds can vary greatly depending on factors such as height, weight, age, terrain, surface, load, culture, and fitness, the average human walking speed is about 3 miles per hour. Specific studies have found pedestrian walking speeds ranging from 4.11 to 4.33 feet per second (2.8 mph ~ 2.95 mph | 4.51 km/h ~ 4.75 km/h) for older individuals to 4.85 to 4.95 fps (3.3 mph ~ 3.38 mph | 5.32 km/h ~ 5.43 km/h) for younger individuals.[4][5] A pedestrian is a person who is walking on a road, sidewalk or path.
Contents |
Sustained walking sessions for a minimum period of thirty to sixty minutes a day, five days a week, with the correct walking posture,[6][7] reduces health risks and has various overall health benefits,[8] such as reducing the chances of cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, anxiety and depression.[9] Life expectancy is also increased even for individuals suffering from obesity or high blood pressure. Walking also increases bone health, especially strengthening the hip bone, and lowering the more harmful bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and raises the more useful good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]
Judging from foot prints discovered on a former shore in Kenya, it is thought possible that ancestors of modern humans were walking in ways very similar to the present activity as much as 1.5 million years ago.[18][19]
While not strictly bipedal, several primarily bipedal human gaits (where the long bones of the arms support at most a small fraction of the body's weight) are generally regarded as variants of walking. These include:
Human walking is accomplished with a strategy called the double pendulum. During forward motion, the leg that leaves the ground swings forward from the hip. This sweep is the first pendulum. Then the leg strikes the ground with the heel and rolls through to the toe in a motion described as an inverted pendulum. The motion of the two legs is coordinated so that one foot or the other is always in contact with the ground. The process of walking recovers approximately sixty per cent of the energy used due to pendulum dynamics and ground reaction force.[20][21]
Walking differs from a running gait in a number of ways. The most obvious is that during walking one leg always stays on the ground while the other is swinging. In running there is typically a ballistic phase where the runner is airborne with both feet in the air (for bipedals).
Another difference concerns the movement of the center of mass of the body. In walking the body "vaults" over the leg on the ground, raising the center of mass to its highest point as the leg passes the vertical, and dropping it to the lowest as the legs are spread apart. Essentially kinetic energy of forward motion is constantly being traded for a rise in potential energy. This is reversed in running where the center of mass is at its lowest as the leg is vertical. This is because the impact of landing from the ballistic phase is absorbed by bending the leg and consequently storing energy in muscles and tendons. In running there is a conversion between kinetic, potential, and elastic energy.
There is an absolute limit on an individual's speed of walking (without special techniques such as those employed in speed walking) due to the upwards acceleration of the center of mass during a stride - if it's greater than the acceleration due to gravity the person will become airborne as they vault over the leg on the ground. Typically however, animals switch to a run at a lower speed than this due to energy efficiencies.
Average adult walking velocity on level surfaces is approximately 80 m/min. For men, it is about 82 m/min, and for women, about 79 m/min.[22]
Many people walk as a hobby, and in our post-industrial age it is often enjoyed as one of the best forms of exercise.[23]
Fitness walkers and others may use a pedometer to count their steps. The types of walking include bushwalking, racewalking, weight-walking, hillwalking, volksmarching, Nordic walking and hiking on long-distance paths. Sometimes people prefer to walk indoors using a treadmill. In some countries walking as a hobby is known as hiking (the typical North American term), rambling (a somewhat dated British expression, but remaining in use because it is enshrined in the title of the important Ramblers' Association), or tramping. Hiking is a subtype of walking, generally used to mean walking in nature areas on specially designated routes or trails, as opposed to in urban environments; however, hiking can also refer to any long-distance walk. More obscure terms for walking include "to go by Marrow-bone stage", "to take one's daily constitutional", "to ride Shank's pony", "to ride Shank's mare", or "to go by Walker's bus". Among search and rescue responders, those responders who walk (rather than ride, drive, fly, climb, or sit in a communications trailer) often are known as "ground pounders".[24][25]
The Walking the Way to Health Initiative is the largest volunteer led walking scheme in the United Kingdom. Volunteers are trained to lead free Health Walks from community venues such as libraries and GP surgeries. The scheme has trained over 35,000 volunteers and have over 500 schemes operating across the UK, with thousands of people walking every week.
Professionals working to increase the number of people walking more usually come from 6 sectors: health, transport, environment, schools, sport & recreation and urban design. A new organization called Walk England launched a web site on the 18th June 2008 to provide these professionals with evidence, advice and examples of success stories of how to encourage communities to walk more. The site has a social networking aspect to allow professionals and the public to ask questions, discuss, post news and events and communicate with others in their area about walking, as well as a "walk now" option to find out what walks are available in each region.
The world's largest registration walking event is the International Four Days Marches Nijmegen. The annual Labor Day walk on Mackinac Bridge draws over sixty thousand participants. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge walk annually draws over fifty thousand participants. Walks are often organized as charity events with walkers seeking sponsors to raise money for a specific cause. Charity walks range in length from two mile (3 km) or five km walks to as far as fifty miles (eighty km). The MS Challenge Walk is an example of a fifty mile walk which raises money to fight multiple sclerosis. The Oxfam Trailwalker is a one hundred km event.
In Britain, the Ramblers' Association is the biggest organization that looks after the interests of walkers. A registered charity, it has 139,000 members. Regular, brisk cycling or walking can improve confidence, stamina, energy, weight control, life expectancy and reduce stress. It can also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, strokes, diabetes, high blood pressure, bowel cancer and osteoporosis. Modern scientific studies have shown that walking, besides its physical benefits, is also beneficial for the mind — improving memory skills, learning ability, concentration and abstract reasoning, as well as reducing stress and uplifting ones' spirits.
As a form of tourism there are many options for walking. The most famous one would be "walking tours" normally offered in different cities by paid guide tours. However, there are some volunteers that can drive walking tours for tourists and do not charge for it, but just ask for a small tip at the end of the walk. Websites such as Bluewalks[26] promotes walking as a form of collaborative and green tourism allowing travelers to share their walking tours.
Walking is the most basic and common mode of transportation and is recommended for a healthy lifestyle, and has numerous environmental benefits. However, people are walking less in the UK, a Department of Transport report found that between 1995/97 and 2005 the average number of walk trips per person fell by 16%, from 292 to 245 per year. Many professionals in local authorities and the NHS are employed to halt this decline by ensuring that the built environment allows people to walk and that there are walking opportunities available to them.
"Walking is convenient, it needs no special equipment, is self-regulating and inherently safe. Walking is as natural as breathing". John Butcher, Founder Walk21, 1999
There has been a recent focus among urban planners in some communities to create pedestrian-friendly areas and roads, allowing commuting, shopping and recreation to be done on foot. Some communities are at least partially car-free, making them particularly supportive of walking and other modes of transportation. In the United States, the Active Living network is an example of a concerted effort to develop communities more friendly to walking and other physical activities.
Walking is also considered to be a clear example of a sustainable mode of transport, especially suited for urban use and/or relatively shorter distances. Non Motorised Transport modes such as walking, but also cycling, small-wheeled transport (skates, skateboards, push scooters and hand carts) or wheelchair travel are often key elements of successfully encouraging clean urban transport.[27] A large variety of case studies and good practices (from European cities and some worldwide examples) that promote and stimulate walking as a means of transportation in cities can be found at Eltis, Europe's portal for local transport.[28]
On roads with no sidewalks, pedestrians should always walk facing the oncoming traffic for their own and other peoples' safety.
When distances are too great to be convenient,walking can be combined with other modes of transportation, such as cycling, public transport, car sharing, carpooling, hitchhiking, ride sharing, car rentals and taxis. These methods may be more efficient or desirable than private car ownership, being a healthy means of physical exercise.
The development of specific rights of way with appropriate infrastructure can promote increased participation and enjoyment of walking. Examples of types of investment include pedestrian malls, and foreshoreways such as oceanways and riverwalks.
The first successful attempts at walking robots tended to have 6 legs. The number of legs was reduced as microprocessor technology advanced, and there are now a number of robots that can walk on 2 legs, though not nearly as well as a human being.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Walking |
 |
Look up walk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Walking |
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - gående, omvandrende, gang-
idioms:
Français (French)
adj. - ambulant
n. - promenade à pied, marche à pied
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
adj. - gehend, Wander-, Schreit-, Lauf-
n. - Gehen
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - κατάλληλος για περίπατο, ελκόμενος ή καθοδηγούμενος
n. - βάδισμα, πεζοπορία, περπάτημα, περπατησιά, τρόπος βαδίσματος
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - andador
n. - caminhada (f)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
ходьба, спортивная ходьба, походка, дорога, манера держаться, гуляющий, ходячий, на шагающем ходу, ходовой
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
adj. - caminante, ambulante, de andar, oscilante
n. - caminata, paseo, paso, modo de andar
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - vandrande
n. - gående, gång, promenad
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
能行走的, 步行的
idioms:
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 能行走的, 步行的
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 걷는, 걸으면서 조작하는, (기계가) 이동하는
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 歩くこと
adj. - 歩く, 歩行用の
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) بشري, حي, متجول, قادر على المشي, ملائم للمشي, متذبذب, غير مقعد, سيار (الاسم) المشي
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - מהלך, טיולי, של טיול, להליכה
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
To select your translation preferences click here.
| Shopping: Walking |
Did you mean: walking, The Walking Company Holdings, Inc. (Public Company), walk, The Walking (1988 Album by Jane Siberry), Walking (1968 animated film), Walking (Thoreau) More...
 | gait |
| control of movement |
| posture |
 | If you walk a block how far have you walked? Read answer... |
| How do you do the walk that walk dance? Read answer... |
| If you walk for 45minutes how far do i walk? Read answer... |
 | What does walk the walk mean? |
| Differentiate between walking with and walking in? |
| Can we walk forward when we walk backward? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| World of the Body. The Oxford Companion to the Body. Copyright © 2001, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
|
| Food and Fitness. Food and Fitness: A Dictionary of Diet and Exercise. Copyright © 1997, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
|
| Sports Science and Medicine. The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine. Copyright © Michael Kent 1998, 2006, 2007. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more |
 |
| Quotes About. Copyright © 2005 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Walking". Read more |
 |
| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
Mentioned in
