This is an extremely thorough and well-written presentation about the hazards of endurance running and the benefits of an overall active lifestyle, with the centerpiece being walking. It’s essentially a two-phase book, with Part I being all about the false promises and fallout of the running boom, and Part II being the benefits of a movement-oriented lifestyle and a full-body approach to fitness. Don’t worry, even if you’re a devoted runner, you will gain tremendous value from the book and rethink some of the popular notions in the running and fitness world that are hazardous to your health. Here is a concise overview of what’s in each chapter. I know you will get drawn in immediately and appreciate the many thoughtful and well-researched arguments and presentations from the authors.
Part I
Chapter 1: The running boom is built on hype and folly. Did you realize that the famous story of Pheidippides running 26 miles from Marathon to Athens is completely made up? It came from a poem written in the 1800s. This fabricated story is the basis for the modern marathon race distance! Also interesting is how Nike’s invention of the cushioned waffle-sole shoe allowed people to run who really shouldn’t be running. Hence, the modern day runner frequently gets injured, exhausted and burnt out.
Chapter 2: Running does not help you lose excess body fat, period. Ouch! What happens when you burn a lot of calories running is you end up eating more food and moving and exercising less for the rest of the day. This is called the compensation theory of exercise–your body needs to conserve energy because running is so exhausting. Furthermore, the book explains that adding belly fat/visceral fat is caused by too much stress/cortisol production. So an endurance training program that’s too strenuous can promote losing muscle mass and adding a spare tire–the so-called “skinny fat” physique.
Chapter 3: Running shoes are the major reason that a reported half of all runners get injured every year. What?! Shoes are supposed to prevent injury, but they instead enable unfit people to shuffle along with a heel-striking, overstriding form that generates extra impact trauma. There is zero research showing running shoes help prevent injury–it’s complete hype! Again, without modern cushioned shoes, we wouldn’t be able to run–but maybe most people shouldn’t be running!
Chapter 4: “Chronic cardio” is a pattern of workouts that are too stressful with not enough rest and recovery. This is what causes overuse injuries, failure to reduce excess body fat (and even gain visceral fat), and slower performances. The book argues that most runners, and even most gym rats, are doing chronic cardio. The chapter also describes in detail how running a marathon trashes your body–causing inflammation, suppressed immunity and muscle damage that lasts for weeks!
Chapter 5: The “obligate runner” is tightly wound and obsessed to the extent that he runs to exhaustion and gets depressed if he can’t run. Like an addict, an obligate runner needs his daily run just to feel okay. There is a lot of cultural programming in the running community that’s unhealthy, such as the common obsession with how many miles a week you can run. The book mentions research comparing runners to anorexics, and provides harrowing case studies of notorious extreme runners like the late author Jim Fixx and modern-day ultra freak David Goggins.
Part II
As you can see from my overview, Part I of the book is a lot of exposé, negative warnings about running, and a skillful refutation of the “born to run” fantasy that is historically and biologically off base. In Part II, the tone shifts to extol the wonderful benefits of a movement oriented lifestyle and how to correct course and train the right way.
Chapter 6: Building a strong aerobic base is the foundation for endurance and all other types of athletic performance. You must build your oxygen processing and fat burning capabilities in order to reach your potential. We can now determine the best training intensity for fat burning by measuring heart rate. “Fat max” heart rate is where you burn the most fat calories per minute; it’s a surprisingly slow pace for most. Because exceeding fat max is a stressful workout and trains glucose burning more than fat burning, the conclusion is that most of your training should be walking, not running! The best endurance athletes in the world do most of their training at comfortable heart rates, but recreational runners routinely exceed that pace and become exhausted (and injured, and fat.) In my opinion, this is the most important message in the book. You have to slow down to become truly fit and healthy!
Chapter 7: The benefits to a walking-centric lifestyle are numerous. In fact, our human genes require extensive daily walking in order to be healthy. We are not meant to sit around - this causes a decline in fat burning, cognitive ability, and results in muscular and joint atrophy and dysfunction. Walks can be short or long, but they boost health in many ways without the downside risk associated with running in a stressful manner. Walking boosts brain function and problem solving, builds strong muscles and joints without impact trauma, improves fat metabolism, and boosts mental health. A key sound bite from the book, “Walking is anabolic; running is catabolic.” Oh, about the “born to run” fantasy: It’s a major distortion of evolutionary biology. Humans evolved not by outrunning wild beasts, but by outsmarting them. It’s a ridiculous interpretation to think humans ran for hours to wear down the great beasts for their dinner.
Chapter 8: The human foot is the foundation for all types of exercise, everyday movement, and overall musculoskeletal health. We’ve inflicted chronic pain, atrophy, and injury to our feet by encasing them in cushioned shoes for our entire lives. Bare feet can gracefully absorb impact trauma and generate energy, but wearing shoes wrongly transfers impact load to the muscles and joints of the lower body. Indeed, Harvard research reveals that impact forces are much lower in bare feet than in even the most super cushioned shoes! How? Because the muscles, bones, and joints of the feet and legs can efficiently sense bodyweight moving through space and landing in a manner that absorbs impact and harnesses kinetic energy for a powerful stride. Now, we can’t just take off and start running barefoot, because our feet are so weak from years of shoe use. Hence, it’s important to make a graceful transition to strengthen feet by walking around barefoot or in minimalist shoes. Humans are “born to walk barefoot!”
Chapter 9: Broad-based functional fitness means building strong muscles with regular strength training, and also building explosive power and speed with top-end efforts. In fact, sprint workouts deliver superior benefits for weight loss, overall fitness, and longevity than any other type of workout! In contrast, getting really good at endurance only represents a small piece of total fitness, and can easily be taken to the extreme. This then comes at the expense of other important fitness objectives, because too much energy is devoted to running.
There is a great Epilogue where we are urged to embrace a more sensible approach to fitness, and reallocate energy spent on running to workouts that deliver more fitness benefits, like strength training, sprinting, and unstructured play. The Appendix offers numerous suggestions for creative workouts that build broad fitness skills and are a refreshing break from steady-state endurance sessions–the concept of “cardio 2.0” where you go for an outing consisting of jogging, some challenging sprint drills or parcourse-type exercises, and walking time to recover. Born To Walk will change my approach to fitness forever.
Born to Walk: The Broken Promises of the Running Boom, and How to Slow Down and Get Healthy—One Step at a Time
4.4 | 99 ratings
Price: 21.83
Last update: 04-02-2025
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Top reviews from the United States
AnnaA book that will transform the fitness industry and how we think about endurance running
B. V.An Important Education for the Average Recreational Runner
B. V.
An Important Education for the Average Recreational Runner
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2025
I think the book is a helpful counter view to the running culture where it seems like runners get lured into the game and then socialized with a bunch of misguided and antiquated ideas about how to train. One of the best examples is how the marathon is widely-regarded as the ultimate achievement. The book does a good job exposing the hype surrounding the marathon distance. First, the legendary story of the first marathoner from ancient Greece was a made up story! The 26.2-mile distance is arbitrary, and it’s most suitable for Olympic-level athletes who train hard and have the genetics to be runners. It’s not a healthy event for the masses. Second, lots of marketing hype from the shoe industry and event producers push people into these extreme events due to profit motives.
The book has a complete chapter about ‘full body functional fitness’ for longevity. It includes a balance of workouts like increased walking and general movement, strength training, sprinting, and play. And even an Appendix with a bunch of “Cardio 2.0” workouts that are more fun and develop more fitness attributes than boring steady-state, straight-line cardio. The book is well-written and easy to understand, even for people who aren’t big runners or fitness freaks. It offers a great understanding for what it takes for humans to be healthy every day, starting with walking!!
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