These days almost everyone you meet is a member of a gym, and instead of attending church every week – as they did in days gone by – they make regular visits to these temples of the body beautiful: the new religion of our times. Yet despite these obligatory bouts of body worship, the general health of the nation – physical and mental – does not appear to be improving. The evidence tells us that obscene levels of obesity are at an all-time high, and everyone has heard stories of those struck down in the prime of life by strokes, coronaries or – most common of all – cancer, the plague of our age.
Last week, for example, I heard of an acquaintance, thought super-fit by his friends, who wearied his girlfriend with constant demands for vigorous sex, and who suddenly dropped dead in the stairwell of his home – felled by a heart attack that apparently came from nowhere. And who of us has not heard of someone visiting a doctor with a mysterious pain, only to be given a deadly diagnosis of some fell disease and told they had just a few months more to live?
Instead of ruinously expensive sessions in a gym, I would recommend a form of exercise that requires no membership fees, no purchase of expensive equipment, and no regular attendance at a given location. I mean the gentle practice of merely putting one foot in front of the other – and just walking.
Walking – either alone, with a like-minded companion, or in one of many organised groups – is a safer, cheaper and more beneficial way of staying fit than going to gyms. And you get to see the superb sites of our gorgeous countryside, which you don’t when lifting weights.
It is the simplest form of exercise known to humankind, and makes no dangerous demands on the cardiovascular system, which gym visits, jogging, cycling or running a marathon entail. Moreover, walking slowly releases endorphins as well as leaving one with pleasantly aching parts of the body at its conclusion.
Unless you can afford to keep a horse, walking is by far the nicest and easiest way of viewing our green and pleasant land. Last weekend, for instance, I visited a hill fort that inspired William Blake to pen that famous phrase when he wrote ‘Jerusalem’ while looking out towards the Trundle, a Bronze Age settlement on St Roche’s hill near Goodwood in West Sussex.
It is certainly not the north face of the Eiger, but ascending the 676ft Trundle still requires a steady half-hour climb. And it is not as demanding as two other beauty spots in the same area: Kingley Vale, whose grove of yew trees are reputedly older than nearby Chichester Cathedral; and Harting Down, a National Trust-owned area of the South Downs that really does take it out of the calf muscles.
It is the simplest form of exercise known to humankind, and makes no dangerous demands on the cardiovascular system
Even in overcrowded south-east England, it is still possible to explore hills, woods, fields and forests where you will meet few fellow walkers. And if panting your way up to a hill fort is not your idea of fun, how about a sandy stroll around the beautiful beaches of West Wittering, where only a yapping hound is likely to disturb your peaceful contemplation of the coast
I have walked several of the maintained long-distance paths that cater to the more dedicated strollers. The South Downs Way between Eastbourne and Winchester is popular with both walkers and – annoyingly – mountain bikers. The Cotswold Way takes you past some of England’s most beautiful towns and villages.
More demanding is the South West coastal path around the Cornish peninsula between Poole on the English Channel and Minehead on the Bristol Channel. It features in the current film The Salt Path, about a couple who counter the double whammy of a terminal illness diagnosis and homelessness by simply setting out to walk the 600-mile path. As the poet Thom Gunn wrote in his signature verses ‘On the Move’: ‘Reaching no absolute in which to rest/ One is always nearer by not keeping still.’
It has been calculated that completing the South West coastal path is equivalent to ascending Everest three times, but you don’t have to be a Hillary or a Tenzing to walk. A stout pair of boots and a map is all that is required. Whether in company or alone, it will certainly make you feel good – and it may even save your life.
