52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time

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The science also shows walking in a group or with a friend, even if just in your imagination, can help long distances or high mountains feel less intimidating, she says. In the author’s own words, this is A love letter to walking. I really enjoyed this fascinating book and I learned a great deal. It’s full of scientifically based advice on the best ways to walk for the benefit of physical and mental health and well-being. Annabel Streets is an award-winning author of both narrative and practical nonfiction. She occasionally writes under the name Annabel Abbs, a pen name she is using for her forthcoming nonfiction book, Windswept: Women Who Walked.

Walking had become, once again, the great adventure of my life. But this time science could explain how and why”

Urges readers to put on walking shoes, offering a weekly, new perspective on walking, no matter where you live’ – Irish Independent We have turned on to a path that follows the Thames. Reflected sunlight gives a chrome cast to the river. “It’s magical,” says Streets, looking out at the refracting glitter, “and when the sun shines down on the water like this it means you get twice as much light, so you get twice the serotonin boost and serotonin is what makes us happy.” This is a typical blend of the scientific and the romantic found in the book. For Streets, a waterfall doesn’t stop being inspiring and wonderful when you know that the presence of negative ions, molecules of air and water charged with electricity, are the reason for your lowered heart rate and reduced stress. Studies on the potential effects of the full moon – covering everything from a higher rate of women going into labour to increases in violent crime – are inconclusive, but Streets feels that adds to “the eerie, enigmatic qualities of a moonlit walk”. I think beyond that, there’s this is very, I think it’s quite primal, sense of connection that you get when you look up and have that night sky above you.

I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this book, although it shouldn't have been a surprise given the rather informative title, but it was so unexpectedly delightful! Research has shown a late afternoon walk among green trees is as effective as taking a sleeping pill, she says. We might think we know everything we need to about walking but there is always more to discover. This book is about how walking is connected both to old wisdom and new scientific frontiers of discovery … If you’re not a habitual walker this book will give you good reasons why you should get started and, if you are experienced, ways to keep it fresh … Fascinating.’– Lauren Laverne The 52 Ways to Walk project was actually the product of over-enthusiastic research. Streets, who also writes as Annabel Abbs, has written several historical novels, all based on real women, like Lucia Joyce, a professional dancer and the daughter of James Joyce; or Frieda Weekley who eloped with DH Lawrence and is considered to be the inspiration for Lady Chatterley. Streets had been working on a nonfiction book, Windswept, where she walked the routes taken by famous women, such as the artist Georgia O’Keeffe or the nature writer Nan Shepherd. “There was memoir and biography and I had also included a lot of scientific research about walking,” she says. “My editor, quite rightly, insisted I remove it.” Rather than let it go to waste, that research was the start of 52 Ways. “Other people, who were much more expert than me on various topics, were very generous with their knowledge and their time,” she says. “There are shelves and shelves of research on walking, but I think people have largely found it unsexy.”

Terpenes are the trees’ own immune system,” says Streets, “and when you walk underneath them you breathe that self-protection mechanism. There are studies showing that the blood pressure of people walking under evergreens was significantly lower than that of the people walking in a control group.” For Streets, it was a spark, a gleeful rekindling of an old love affair. “Walking had never seemed more beguiling or thrilling,” she writes in the book’s introduction. Her friends, and especially her family, didn’t catch the same vibe. It was wet. It was cold. It was boring. It was slow. It was just… walking. između svih tih (ne)izvedivih prijedloga, spontano sam si izabrala nekolicinu na koje ću više obratiti pažnju jer hodati ne namjeravam prestati, a kad je već tako, ajde da izvučem maksimum iz priče.