Energy Walks

Robert E. Thayer

Don't touch that candy bar! A short walk gives you a longer energy boost and improves your mood.

Recently I bumped into one of my students at a candy machine on our college campus. He told me he was about to attend a long and boring lecture and needed his favorite sweet to stay alert. I suggested that he join me for a brisk walk instead. When we returned, he thanked me for the tip. As he left for the lecture hall, he said he felt on top of the world.

Another of my students suffered badly from test anxiety. She knew of my work on the psychology of mood and asked me for help because she had an important exam coming up. I suggested she take a 10-minute walk, moderately fast-paced but not exhausting, before the test. She took the advice and later reported that she'd aced the exam.

I have been doing research for many years on the mood changes that occur with short, rapid walks. My latest findings clearly indicate that brisk walks increase people's feelings of energy, sometimes for several hours. They are a more effective (and less fattening) pick-me-up than a candy bar, and can reduce tension and make personal problems appear less serious. These changes can be subtle, but repeated over time they become very apparent. Short walks may even make it easier to quit smoking.

I learned of these effects from several experiments with young and middle-aged people who were in fairly good shape. In an early experiment, I had a group of college students sit for a few minutes and rate their feelings of energy and tension using a short checklist. They then joined me for a moderately fast 10-minute walk around the campus. We returned and sat down, and within five minutes people completed the checklist again.

People felt more energetic and less tired following the walk. I later repeated this procedure with people who walked on an exercise machine in a bare-walled room, to ensure that the mood shift was not due simply to a stroll through the attractive campus surroundings. My theory that walking energizes us regardless of the scenery held true. Other aspects of this research made it clear that the mood change did not occur because people expected walking would lift their spirits—it was the walk itself that was responsible. In another study, Dr. James Rippe also found that walking—specifically a three-mile walk—reduces people's anxiety and tension, as well as their blood pressure.

My next step was to discover how long the energized mood lasted. This time, people walked on a number of occasions during a three-week period. Each time, they rated their energy and tension levels, then walked briskly for 10 minutes and repeated the ratings several times during the following two hours.

Twenty minutes after the walk, there were significant increases in energy and decreases in fatigue and tension. The effects lasted for at least an hour—impressive results when you consider that it took only 10 minutes of rapid walking to produce them. Even after two hours, the increased energy from walking was still present to a small degree.

As part of this experiment I compared walking to the effects of eating a sugar snack. I had people eat an average-sized candy bar instead of taking the walk. The immediate mood change from the candy bar was similar to the effect of walking: increased energy. But one hour after snacking, some negative changes began to show up: People felt more tired and a lot more tense (the tension was gone after two hours).

Other researchers have found that eating sugar can cause fatigue, perhaps because it leads to higher levels of certain chemicals in the brain which act as a sedative. I found that the first reaction to sugar is enhanced energy, and fatigue seems to occur half an hour to an hour later. This might explain why people who ate candy bars subsequently felt tense: People felt tired but were not able to sleep (it was during the day and they were busy), which made them tense. The people who walked enjoyed an energy boost, avoided the effects of a sugar sedative and didn't experience tension later on.

Short, rapid walks can also help make personal problems appear less serious and increase optimism. During the course of three weeks, one group of people repeatedly assessed the severity of a continuing personal problem, such as an unhappy marriage or a stubborn weight problem. Another group rated their level of optimism. In addition to completing these ratings at fixed times each day, people in both groups took a brisk 10-minute walk.

After the walk, chronic personal problems appeared less serious. The walk also increased general optimism. These improvements were small and were not noticeable every day, but after three weeks the difference became obvious.

Walking produces some other interesting psychological effects, according to studies currently under way by various graduate students and myself. One especially important benefit may be for cigarette smokers who are trying to cut down or quit. Since people often smoke to increase their energy or reduce tension, we have asked smokers to take five-minute walks before they light up. So far the results are very impressive. Following a walk, our smokers wait twice as long as non-walking smokers do between cigarettes during free-smoking periods. And those who report the greatest energy increase from the walk wait the longest to smoke the next cigarette.

Walking is, of course, very good physical exercise. Beyond that, it feels good to walk and at moderate walking speeds those good feelings occur right away. Try it after you've been sitting for a while. Keep your posture erect but otherwise relaxed, swing your arms freely and breathe naturally. You don't have to be a dedicated athlete to walk, nor do you need to invest a lot of time and money. Ten minutes should do it and the benefits—both mental and physical—should last a lot longer.