The Science of Walking      

                    It is said that walking is the safest and arguably the best form of exercise for the human body. 

Walking can also be a great way to lose adipose tissue, prevent undesired weight-gain and to attain and maintain aerobic efficiency, but only if all of the muscles and joints that should be involved are actually used.

 
            There are two main sources from which the body can be "fueled" − fat or glucose.  Glucose is primarily "brain fuel" but can be used by other muscles in cases of emergency when fat cannot be processed rapidly enough.  Fat, however, is processed slowly and is the standard day-to-day fuel for low-stress activities.  When lots of muscles share the effort, all of them are able to burn fat for fuel.  But, if one body-part is forced to do the work that should be shared among many parts, the ensuing stress creates a demand for the high-energy, rapid-release fuel, glucose (glycogen).  And, when the limited supply is exhausted, muscle can be torn down and converted into glucose − a situation to be avoided as that's when carbohydrate cravings begin and your brain will initiate the quest for sugary comfort foods such as bread, pasta, cookies, soft-drinks, candy and alcohol.  Any unused carbohydrate will be converted into body-fat and stored!
  As far as walking is concerned, what separates Man from the apes is Man’s ability to swivel both the ankle and the sacroiliac joint at the base of the spine.  Those actions allow for “walking-efficiency”.  Apes amble with stiff hips and unfortunately, to their detriment, so do a lot of humans.  But those people who have either naturally or consciously discovered the science of walking can do so further and faster for longer periods of time without becoming exhausted or causing harmful stress to their muscles and joints.

 
            Importantly, efficient walking allows the human system to use the readily-available and almost limitless, fat for fuel while inefficient walking techniques are fueled from glucose which causes fat to be stored and muscles to be destroyed − a situation to be avoided as that's when extra weight in the form of fat is packed on.

The other significant difference between Man and the lower primates is Man’s ability to discern and learn, then benefit from the new knowledge.
  If you sit in any mall and people-watch, the first thing you may notice will be how pedestrians place their feet while walking.  Most will point their feet outwards, usually "splayed" unequally.  Secondly, you may observe the common, stiff-hipped action as though walking in knee-deep mud.  To perform both of those actions for any length of time requires suppression of the use of a lot of muscles which in fact needs more glucose-fueled energy (which causes rapid exhaustion) than when walking correctly.
 

Too many people don’t know how to walk even though they’ve been attempting to do so for most of their lives.  And, when they become overweight they’re advised to take up “jogging”.  But everybody’s heard the age-old maxim: 

                         You need to walk before you try to run

The inability to walk correctly contributed directly to that weight gain and then, the force of gravity combined with all the accumulated extra poundage, bouncing along on a hard surface, will submit critical joints to destructive stress!

As the Fifties rock and roll band, the Ventures, wisely advised:   Walk, don’t Run!

But to burn body-fat, you must walk scientifically!

            So, what’s "scientific" about walking?

Because “civilized” populations don’t walk much anymore, walking has become a science − something way beyond the understanding of the average, normally-educated citizen.  Yet, in under-developed Third-World countries where walking is still the main mode of transportation, efficient walking is learned early and naturally.

Did anybody ever “teach” you how to walk?  Or did you just struggle to your feet one day and clumsily place one foot after the other, stumbling across the room while somebody clapped and cheered?  That’s how everybody starts to walk and also where the learning process often ends. 

However, some people naturally develop stress-free walking techniques that use a lot of muscles synergistically, which makes walking effortless because it's fueled economically from stored body-fat.  Women make up the majority of that group but a handful from both sexes become champion race-walkers, sprinters or long-distance runners.  The other 90% of the population continue stumbling through life just one step short of falling over, most of whom carry at least ten kilograms of surplus fat around the midriff and at some point in their lives suffer from neck, back, hip, knee, ankle and foot problems.  That excess body-fat could have been used up simply by walking correctly!

          Consider these factoids:  joggers will never jog a mile in six minutes; recreational runners feel that a six-minute mile is a good indication of fitness.  Any good race-walker can walk a mile in six minutes and the significant difference is that race-walking is fueled from stored body-fat while jogging and running use up all of the stored glycogen in the system which was actually meant to be used by the brain!  When there's no more glycogen available, the system tears down valuable muscle and converts it to glycogen.  Now there's some fuel for though! (Most marathoners appear emaciated, no?)