Has your walking speed remained constant as you've aged?

[eytonxav]

Interesting article:

Walking Speed Might Reveal How Long You'll Live | Health | English

It amazes me how many younger people wiz by me when I am out walking. At one time, I considered myself to be one of faster walkers, but no more.

[MasterBlaster]

Some people can walk much faster but choose to walk at a more leasurely pace.

How does that fit into the science of walking speed and life-span ?

[GregLee]

Do you think your cadence -- steps per minute -- has slowed? Or is it that your stride has shortened? I've been doing some exercises lately to stretch my quadriceps out, hoping to lengthen my stride back to what it was when I was younger.

[braumeister]

Interesting article in the paper yesterday about a related factoid.
Back in the 50s, traffic engineers who programmed the timing of traffic lights (to give pedestrians enough time to cross the street) used an average pedestrian speed of four feet per second. When they looked at it again in the 90s, they found that the average walking speed had decreased to 3.5 fps. That's a pretty big drop.

[eytonxav]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterBlaster Some people can walk much faster but choose to walk at a more leasurely pace. How does that fit into the science of walking speed and life-span ?

I don't have an answer to that. I assume they are referring to when ones normal gait/speed slow up vs purposely trying to walk fast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregLee Do you think your cadence -- steps per minute -- has slowed? Or is it that your stride has shortened? I've been doing some exercises lately to stretch my quadriceps out, hoping to lengthen my stride back to what it was when I was younger.

I feel like my cadence and stride are not as fast/long as they were back in my late 40s or early 50s. I can still jog at <10 minute mile pace, which also is not what it used to be. I've never had a Dr question me on this before and certainly this type of change takes place over a long period of time, so unless the change is rather sudden, probably nothing to worry about. Was just wondering if others have noticed this in themselves.

[haha]

I would say that this is a non-issue, and unless one is looking for something to worry about, just walk on by.

Ha

[HawkeyeNFO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Interesting article in the paper yesterday about a related factoid. Back in the 50s, traffic engineers who programmed the timing of traffic lights (to give pedestrians enough time to cross the street) used an average pedestrian speed of four feet per second. When they looked at it again in the 90s, they found that the average walking speed had decreased to 3.5 fps. That's a pretty big drop.

That's because fat people walk slower, and in the 50s, there weren't so many fatties walking around.