Todd Hargrove wrote a love letter to walking, and it made me a little defensive, which usually means it’s true.
Walking is the most underrated movement practice there is. Free. No skill barrier. No mat, no studio, no costume change, no playlist that smells like incense. Endlessly available. And almost everyone skips it — because it doesn’t look like anything. There’s no bind to post. No drop-back to film. Just a person, outside, moving.
Yoga people are especially guilty. We’ll drive across town for a workshop on a pose we’ll do twice, then sit in the car at every other chance to move. We want the dramatic input. Walking is the base layer — the thing the dramatic stuff does almost nothing without.
It’s joint nutrition. It’s nervous-system regulation in real time. It’s the unstructured thinking your best ideas actually come from. It asks nothing and gives a lot, which is exactly why we don’t value it. We’re suspicious of anything that doesn’t cost.
You don’t need permission or a teacher for this one. The shala opens anyway. So does the sidewalk. Go put some easy miles on the body that carries you through everything else.
Read it: Walking, by Todd Hargrove
The technical version: Why walking beats another class →
— MJH
