My motto going back decades: Walk or die.
Sustained regular walking aids digestion, circulation, breathing, balance and coordination. It’s how, along with some medications, I keep my cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure under control. Going from office to conference room is not a sustained activity, regardless of how many times it’s done during a day.
Like Chefguy says, the key word is “sustained”. That half an hour has to be together, not in itty bitty increments.
But even the itty bitty increments of “get off your arse and move” has a beneficial effect on joints and muscles; or rather, it helps prevent the deleterious effects of keeping the same posture for long hours.
You have to consider the alternatives. If you are capable of running a marathon, but you walk 1.5 miles instead, you really haven’t done much. If the choice is between walking around Walmart or sitting on the couch for another episode of “Biggest Loser”, walking is the better choice.
Not only that, but walking is easy. That’s its greatest benefit and its greatest weakness.
For overweight, sedentary people, walking is the number one way to get off their ass and be active. It’s easy to do, you can fit it into almost any time slot, you don’t have to wear special clothes, and it gets you into the habit of spending 30 minutes to an hour every day being active. It’s the first step to becoming a runner, or even taking those hour long blocks of time and spending them lifting weights or playing sports, or any number of healthy activities.
The fact that it’s easy also means that if you’re in semi-decent shape already, walking is probably not the best thing you can do with your time. It becomes more of a leisure activity than a real exercise.
But we’re talking about a large cross-section of the US here who could stand to see real health and quality of life improvements just by walking 30-60 minutes a day. If that shoe doesn’t fit, you don’t have to wear it, but it fits a lot of people just fine.
Actually I would guess that the added weight of the cart that you are pushing adds to the workout. While it does have wheels that make pushing it easier, it is still heavier than just walking. So while I see how it would seem to make the workout easier, I would guess that pushing a cart would instead give a better workout.
You might not build your back muscles the same if you are bearing down on the cart to some degree, but overall, I don’t think this would diminish the effectiveness of a walking workout in the store.
I walk outside at least an hour every day. Not only does it do me good as exercise, there is a tremendous mental benefit to it. It might just be getting out and doing something, but walking makes me feel better about facing the day with its ups and downs.
A total stranger once stopped me during one of my walks in the merry merry month of May and said the following: Miss, I just want to stop and thank you. (I stop and look at him). All my life I’ve been overweight and nothing has helped. Then I noticed you walking every day and I thought “She’s so slim and I see her walking every day. And if she can do it, I can do it. So I started walking every day on January 1st and I’ve lost forty pounds.”