TREADMILL WORKSTATIONS

I was investigating the latest workplace wellness fad - treadmill desks. There's a variety of them (here's one - http://www.nextdesks.com/treadmill-desk?gclid=CKmas_yAm8sCFQmqaQodxqYCLA ). You can get powered ones or what is called an "incline model, which has no motor but relies on gravity to get you to drive the belt against an incline. There are beautiful high-end models , up to $4k and there are bargain designs where you can retro-fit a desk and a surplus treadmill.
Basically, the idea is to get you off you ass while working, a "step above" (so to speak :) ) the standing workstations that appeared a few years ago. It seems we can be as lazy with the standing versions as just sitting all the time. We need to move to benefit from a standing workstation. 

Do we really want our kids (or ourselves) having more excuses to avoid being outdoors and staring at screens?

While I laud the efforts to get us more active, it seems to me we are missing a few critical points:
1. Walking on a treadmill is hardly a substitute for a brisk walk in a non-work natural space. Perhaps what we need more than high-end fitness equipment crossbred with desks is more opportunities to interrupt work with exposure to natural environments?
2. Do we really want to find new ways for our kids or ourselves to spend less time outdoors and staring at screens in an isolated space?
3. How does getting some exercise while staring at a screen cultivate any greater sense of our physical lives? Its not that different from the banks of gym-people watching Ellen DeG while they workout?

I'm more inclined to ask questions about the nature and form of work in our lives. We are being engineered to be less and less autonomous individuals and more like "units". I can't see how these desks are step in the right direction.

WALKING AND GENIUS

In his new book, The Geography of Genius, Eric Weiner proposes that genius is not something resident in an individual but rather the product of certain conditions in the person's social, political and physical environment – their geography. One of the common threads for geography and genius in Weiner's findings is walking. Charles Dickens walked through London at night working on plots, Mark Twain was known as a constant pacer. Many of Greece's most important philosophers walked to the Agora, into life and chaos, which fed the imagination.

There is, in fact a wonderful book which documents the role of walking in the life and work of centuries of great Western minds. A Philosophy of Walking is a fascinating work by Frederic Gros. He writes:

Walking is not sport. Sport is a discipline, "an ethic, a labour". It is a performance. Walking, on the other hand, is the best way to go more slowly than any other method that has ever been found. If you want to go faster, don't walk. Do something else: drive, slide, fly.

Creative thinking improves while a person is walking and shortly thereafter, according to a study co-authored by Marilyn Oppezzo, a Stanford doctoral graduate in educational psychology, and Daniel Schwartz, an Education professor at Stanford.
The study found that walking indoors or outdoors similarly boosted creative inspiration. The act of walking itself, and not the environment, was the main factor. Across the board, creativity levels were consistently and significantly higher for those walking compared to those sitting.
"Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking. We finally may be taking a step, or two, toward discovering why," Oppezzo and Schwartz wrote in the study published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Weiner was interviewed on CBC's The Current a few days ago. Hear the interview here:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-february-3-2016-1.3431564/genius-linked-to-geography-more-than-genes-says-author-eric-weiner-1.3431585

The Stanford article is here:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/walking-vs-sitting-042414.html

Yours , on the journey,

Ray

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks ~John Muir

TRAIL PLAN AND LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The recreation department in the town has recently approved its master plan for our favourite municipal park, Mateway Park. If you have a chance to look at this document it is available online, see my previous entry for the address.

Below is the text of a letter to the local paper, the Mercury, which summarizes my reaction to the plan and the reality of the way the park is currently being mistreated by motorized vehicles.

The recent release of the development plan for Mateway Park by the town's Recreation Department was a reassuring and welcome document for those of use who routinely use the park on foot. It was further reassuring to see that, after the major facility, the trails are the most used and valued parts of the park. As the leader of Renfrew's recreational walking group, The Kick and Push Pedestrian Society and as a regular dog walker at Mateway, I am pleased at this. I think the Department shows real foresight in looking at ways to further improve the area, especially the ideas of an outdoor cross-fit area and improved accessibility for wheelchair users and less mobile others. This really acknowledges both ends of the ability spectrum, as it does of the importance of recreational walking for a healthy community.

For these plans to work, the Department is going to have to address what I see as a major obstacle for us foot-powered users. This is the night-time use of the trails by various motorized vehicles. In recent months the few yahoos who are unaware of the purpose of these trails have chewed up and damaged trails, making them unsafe for pedestrians. With the most recent snowfall, another group of 4-wheeling truckers have utterly destroyed the trails for walkers, skiers or snow-shoers. I am disappointed that this inappropriate use by a few makes it unusable by so many. Its not as if there aren't kilometres of proper seasonal roads which are open to motorized vehicles.

The signage in and around the park is either absent, illegible or, in places, where the signs are so old, seems to approve motorized vehicles. There are very few obstacles to motorized vehicle travel on the trails. A few open barriers which would not affect pedestrians would go a long way to discouraging vehicles. Hopefully, there is something which would get the message across to motorized vehicles without having to rely on any enforcement or fines. There is not much use to imagining a great park if the property's managers allow uncontrolled misuse that discourages intended users from enjoying the trails.

Yours , on the journey,

Ray

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet

Thich Nhat Hahn

MATEWAY MASTER PLAN AND WALKERS

This week the town of Renfrew released its and much-anticipated master plan for everybody's favourite park, Mateway. This park provides facilities and programming for a wide swath of our community, walkers can be pleased that there are some new improvements coming their way. This plan does not replace the much broader community plan that was released in 2009, rather it focuses specifically on Mateway Park. The Town has earned our praise and support.

The plan is based on a survey and study that was completed over the past year or so, which consulted citizens from all age groups. From a walkers perspective, the outdoor portions of the park were identified as being primarily used by walkers. The use of the trails was more than half of the access to the park, only slightly behind the use of the interior space, and hockey arena. In general the public is satisfied or very satisfied with the trails. There were some complaints, however these were not identified in the study, beyond a few general complaints. These are addressed in the proposed improvements.

The first of the improvements will be trail maps, signage and night time lighting. Continuing the theme of accessibility, there will be improvements to the trails below the hill making them much more usable for wheelchair users. There will be new picnic tables installed, creating a kind of outdoor dining room facility. There will be improved access and parking on the East side of the trails, where one accesses from Opeongo Drive. There is one other addition to the park for walkers and outdoor fitness people. In the North corner, beside where the soccer fields are, there will be a CrossFit workout area developed. There was some discussion of an indoor walking track, but this is something for the future.

It is clear from the report that the town is paying special attention to environmental concerns. There will be more recycling bins available. More importantly, the park will protect certain areas as conservation. Walkers can feel satisfaction at these developments. In combination with the parallel improvements all along the K&P and Millennium trails, we will have excellent outdoor walking facilities.

The Report is viewable here

http://www.town.renfrew.on.ca/2015%20Recreation/Proposed%20Master%20Plan%20Renfrew%20Presentation%20October%2022%202015.pdf 

(PDF 11.MB)

You will need to rotate the presentation.

Yours , on the journey,

Ray

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet

Thich Nhat Hahn

WALKING IN PORTUGAL

Walking in Portugal was as wonderful as every other aspect of our recent visit. The main difference was getting used to two things, the first of these was cobblestones. So many places that we walked we found were paved with century old cobblestones. Very often these dated back to Roman times and, in particular, in cities like Lisbon , they were laid in fantastic geometric patterns , swirls, end sweeping designs in various tones of pinks and roses.

The other thing to get used to was the elevation. Being from a relatively flat environment it was always a little bit disorienting to be faced with steep climbs up or down as part of any given walk. One story in particular happened again in Lisbon. Late in the afternoon the four of us decided we would go out to a seafood restaurant, located in an old convent, which in itself had been converted into a brewery. We checked the map and, from our hotel, it was a mere four or five streets to the north. What we hadn't accounted for was that the restaurant's location was also uphill. This meant five blocks of continuous stairways , often twisting and turning between single lane three-story buildings. Because we were not used to street signage, we're not entirely sure if we were going the right way. At each intersection we would stop and look around and wonder whether we are to continue going up or give up and return to our hotel. In the end we found our restaurant and had one of the most memorable seafood meals of the trip, and possibly of all time. Thankfully after our meal, full of large quantities of seafood and Portuguese wine, we knew we had only a downhill walk back to our hotel .

HOW SENIORS WALK

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to attend some further training in relation to doing assessments for memory loss and other conditions related to aging. In the course of our training we had a brief workshop on gait analysis. This involved examining how an individual walks and how that can be evidence to support a particular diagnosis.

Gait analysis gets used often in assessing orthotic devices for athletes or people with common anatomical issues related to walking. It can be used in a highly specialized way for elite athletes to refine their technique towards maximal performance. In the case of my training we were looking particularly at how gait relates to events that may be occurring in the brain or nervous system. Of primary interest were dementias, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, palsy conditions and so on.

Within the workshop we watched a set of video demonstrations by an extraordinary physician named Benjamin Weiss. Here is a link to Dr. Weiss's video set which you may find interesting in describing disease-related walking conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaCGXOiLr-_WEbnybtwNYGnLiYaK_MB40

On that same channel you can also find more general links to gait analysis as it might be done in a chiropractic setting.

Yours , on the journey,

Ray

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet

Thich Nhat Hahn

MANITOU MOUNTAIN PART 2

The KAPPS walk on Sunday was another in the set of the past four incredible walks. We began at the Barret's Chute end of Manitou Mountain and walked over to the Eagle's Nest again. This was about 10 km, including some interesting side-trails. It took us about 3-3.5 hours.
This trail was absolutely breath-taking. It was that time of year with flourescent yellow, golden brown and lime green foliage. The trail was almost obliterated by fresh leaf-fall. Fortunately we had the services of our loyal track-master, Josh, who sniffed his way to indicate where to go, when the blue slashes eluded us. 

We climbed one lookout at Red Arrow Lookout. From there I thought we would walk below Manitou Mountain Lookout, but we actually walked right up onto it again. This put us back on the trail we did in August. It felt somewhat familiar, but with the changed colours, it had a freshness too.
We looked for a back access to Eagle's Nest and tried 2-3 different side-trails. Maybe we gave up too soon. Who knows. We never did find anything in spite of Doug's "theories". 
Afterwards we all ate like starved children at Mumfords. Even Joshy got a half-sausage and some bacon trimmings.
Thanks to the whole walk team.
The other insight we got from the walk is how many more great walks are waiting for us on Manitou Mountain.

As a side-note, I attended a lecture at the Renfrew Library the weekend before. It was given by a wonderful Algonquin elder/dancer who described what indigenous life in the Valley was like 400 years ago. He made many references to the area around Calabogie, where he grew up and where his ancestors lived. This added some interesting dimension to our walk.