Some Stuff about Walking :
When I first started noticing that my hips were going South -- I read a few books on "walking". I also bought a pair of Rockport shoes designed for just walking. One of the books was written by Steve Reeves (not Superman, but rather the Mr. America guy that played Herc in several B movies). Here are some thoughts I picked up then - plus looking at a few websites that discuss walking . . .
o Walking "is" an Olympic sport.
o World class walkers cover a mile in a bit over 7 minutes.
o To qualify as walking, and to be cast out of a race if the rule is broken, one foot must always be touching the ground. Also, when your front foot heel touches the ground, the toe of the trailing foot must also be touching.
o To gain cardiovascular exercise (Steve Reeves called this Power Walking), one should walk a mile in 15 minutes or less. My time the first day here was 44 minutes -- or a 22 minute mile. Would imagine those up front in our RVForum walks are doing 15 minutes per mile or less.
o You do not gain speed by lengthening the stride. To go faster, the stride should be shorter. Walking power comes from the push off with the toe of the rear leg, whereas if you lengthen the stride, the emphasis is on the front leg -- and you are then trying to pull vs. pushing ahead.
o The arms help. The arms are bent, not straight down and should move forward and back opposite the other leg. The hands should never rise higher than the heart. The hand/arm movement should be straight forward and back.
Everything I've read tho, whether fast, slow or in between all agree that any type of walking is good for us. Several of us here have hip or knee replacements and have experienced not being able to walk at all - so being able to walk from point A to point B again is such a blessing.