Sometimes you are told to walk for exercise, but what happens if you can’t walk because you have too much pain?

This happens more often than you may think. Your doctor tells you to feel better you need to walk, but you’re thinking ‘walking is the problem’ how is walking going to solve my walking problem?

It’s true on both sides of the story. Walking will help you improve your walking, but if it’s too painful to do the thing then you won’t get anywhere.

There has to be a middle ground.

That’s where I come in.

I help teach women who have pain (mainly knee pain) with activities (a lot of them have pain with walking) and guide them through other ways to improve their pain, strength, endurance and flexibility so they can do the thing they want to do.

One piece of advice I give to my clients who can’t tolerate walking is to walk in water instead of on land.

Walking is walking.

If you walk on land it exercises your muscles. If you walk in water it exercises your muscles.

One of the benefits of walking in water is that depending on how deep you are in the water it takes pressure off your joints.

How much pressure is relieved when water walking?

If you are belly button deep in the water you reduce your weight by 50%. So you’ll feel like you weigh half of your body weight.

If you are chest deep in the water you reduce your weight by 75%. So youll feel like you only weigh ¼ of your body weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds, walking in water feels like you weigh 50 pounds.

If you are neck deep in the water you reduce your weight by 90%. So youll feel like you weigh about 20 pounds if you water walk at neck deep water. Walking in water this deep is hard though, so I recommend belly button or chest depth. It becomes harder to swing your arms in the deeper water when walking.

Water walking still uses your muscles and pumps your heart like you were walking on land.

And, bonus, the faster you go the more resistance the water gives you so once gentle walking in water is easy you can speed up your pace and get some resistance from the water.

I have never been an aquatic physical therapist but we had them at the clinic I worked at in Rhode Island. This was a great option for patients to exercise in the water, or just walk in the water, when they couldn’t tolerate the same thing on land.

Obviously this type of exercise requires the availability of a pool to use. It’s most comfortable in a heated pool, but if you can tolerate cooler water the temperature doesn’t really matter. If you don’t own a pool or it’s winter months consider a gym membership so you have year-round access to walking in the water.

As with everything I do recommend exercising in other ways on land so you can progress to being able to walk on land as well as in water. It’s hard to walk through the grocery store or Disney World if you can only ever tolerate walking in water. So eventually, maybe months or a year down the road, incorporate short walks on land and build up stamina over time.

Ok let’s recap: Water walking is an excellent way to exercise and improve tolerance to walking when you currently can’t tolerate walking on land. If you want to reduce pressure on your joints and exercise in the water if you are belly button deep you reduce your weight by half, if you are chest deep in the water you reduce your weight by 75% and finally if you are neck deep in the water you reduce your weight by 90%, so that’s also less pressure felt on your joints. You can start with slow and gentle walking, and then the faster you go the more resistance the water will give you.

If you’re looking for knee pain relief check out this free guide I created just for you