A brief outdoor walk can renew energy, focus

As little as 10 minutes of exercise can result in increased memory and problem-solving skills, according to scientists at the University of California Irvine Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, meaning a quick walk around the office or up and down the stairs to your basement can help shake free some of the workday cobwebs. And the benefits increase if you can double or triple those 10 minutes. And if you can head outside, even better. “Getting fresh air into your lungs can be a real boost to your health,” says Lorenzo Rendi, a personal trainer who recently moved from Chicago to Minneapolis.

If you’re looking for a quick mood boost, try a vigorous 20-minute walk, suggests Michelle Paulson, a personal trainer in Concord, California. “It’s one of the obvious aspects of life that we don’t really put into practice,” says Paulson. “Whenever we exercise, we get a small rush of endorphins. People think they have to work out for 60 minutes and hit a jacked-up heart rate to achieve any sort of chemical change in their bodies but in reality, it varies from person to person.”

Paulson says walking at a brisk pace can mean a 13-minute mile for some and a 20-minute mile for others. “I tell people they should walk to music to set a tempo or just think of a song in their head,” she says. “That will help them set a solid pace. And if they have an unobstructed route, even better.”

Taking it in

While there are many physiological benefits to walking, there are plenty of psychological positives as well. Alexandra Horowitz, author of “On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes (Scribner, $17), suggests enjoying the benefits of simply observing your surroundings. In “On Looking,” Horowitz takes various walks in New York City and other locations with experts in various fields. Her walking companions include naturalist Charley Eiseman, who helps Horowitz appreciate the insects along her route; audio engineer Scott Lehrer, who points out various sounds; and Fred Kent, an expert on the use of urban space, who shows Horowitz the successes and failures of city planning.

Those experts, Horowitz writes, helped her appreciate her surroundings in new, unexpected ways. “The result of all this walking is not a master’s degree in the details of any one city or any single block. It is a tale about what there is to see in any environment, urban or rural,” she writes. “These walks re-awakened in me a sense of perpetual wonder in my surroundings.”