'Fascinating ... Connected both to old wisdom and new scientific frontiers of discovery' Lauren Laverne ________________________ 'We can all learn something from 52 Ways to Walk. I know I can.' Michael Ball, BBC Radio 2 ________________________ Walking strengthens our bodies, calms our minds and lifts our spirits. But it does so much more than this. Our vision, hearing, respiration, sleep, cognition, memory, blood pressure, sense of smell and balance are all enhanced by how we walk. For instance: · Walking in cold weather burns extra fat and builds more muscle. · Walking alone strengthens our memories. · Walking in woodland helps us sleep. · And there's nothing more restorative than a romantic nighthike. Our choice of location, time, direction, duration, walking companion and gait, as well as the weather we opt to walk in, can transform our daily stroll. Here, Annabel Streets shares the thrill of 52 different ways to walk, explaining the latest science behind each one, and providing practical tips for making the most of your daily steps. 52 Ways to Walk is a revelatory and informative handbook for anyone stuck in a walking rut, curious about the lesser-known benefits of walking or merely in need of some on-foot novelty and adventure.

52 Ways to Walk is a short, user-friendly guide to attaining the full range of benefits that walking has to offer--physical, spiritual, and emotional--backed by the latest scientific research to inspire readers to develop a fulfilling walking lifestyle. We think we know how to walk. After all, walking is one of the very first skills we learn. But many of us are stuck in our walking routines, forever walking in the same place, in the same way, for the same time, with the same people. With its thought-provoking and evidence-backed weekly walk routine, 52 Ways to Walk will encourage everyone to improve how they walk, while also encouraging them to seek out new locations (many on their own doorsteps), new walking companions (our brains age better when we mix up our fellow walkers), new times of the day and night, and new skills to acquire while walking. Inspirational, backed by science, illuminated with human anecdote, and bolstered with how-to tips, 52 Ways to Walk will inspire, challenge, support, and encourage everyone to become more ambitious with their walking practice, revealing how walking may be the best-kept secret of the supremely healthy and happy, the creative and well-slept--those with the best posture and sharpest memories. Just about everything, it appears, can be improved and enhanced by clever and judicious walking. It turns out you actually can get more from life, one step at a time.

Discussing the philosophy of Ninjutsu, including apparel, weaponry, and training techniques, this is the definitive book on the subject from the most famous Ninja grandmaster in the world. 450 photos.

180 Ways To Walk The Customer Service Talk is the resource you'll want to read and distribute to every person in your organization. Packed with powerful strategies and tips to cultivate world-class customer service, this handbook promises to be the answer to getting everyone "Walking The Customer Service Talk" and building a reputation of service integrity. At its low price, if everyone adopts just a few ideas to help ensure customers come back again, this book will pay for itself. All employees at every level of the organization need this powerful guide ... from front line employees, to call center representatives, sales people, telemarketers, managers, client services and marketing teams.

Introducing a broad range of innovative and creative qualitative methods, this accessible book shows you how to use them in research project while providing straightforward advice on how to approach every step of the process; from planning and organisation to writing up and disseminating research. The authors provide a complete toolkit for conducting research in this field, while rendering the most novel and cutting-edge methods unintimidating to the reader.

As an ethnographic method walking has a long history, but it has only recently begun to attract focused attention. By walking alongside participants, researchers have been able to observe, experience, and make sense of a broad range of everyday practices. At the same time, the idea of talking and walking with participants has enabled research to be informed by the landscapes in which it takes place. By sharing conversations in place, and at the participants’ pace, sociologists are beginning to develop both a feel for, and a theoretical understanding of, the transient, embodied and multisensual aspects of walking. The result, as this collection demonstrates, is an understanding of the social world evermore congruent with people’s lived experiences of it. This interdisciplinary collection comprises a unique journey through a variety of walking methodologies. The collection highlights a range of possibilities for enfolding sound, smell, emotion, movement and memory into our accounts, illustrating the sensuousness, skill, pitfalls and rewards of walking as a research practice. Each chapter draws on original empirical research to present ways of walking and to discuss the conceptual, practical and technical issues that walking entails. Alongside feet on the ground, the devices and technologies that make up hybrid research mobilities are brought to attention. The collection is bookended by two short pedestrian essays that take the reader on illustrative urban walks, suggesting routes through the city, as well as ways in which the reader might make their own path through walking methods. An innovative title, Walking Through Social Research will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics who are interested in Sociology, Geography, Cultural Studies, Urban Studies and Qualitative Research Methods.

Sociologists have long noted that dynamism is an essential part of the urban way of life. However, walking as a significant social activity and crucial research method (in spite of its ubiquity as part of urban life) has often been overlooked. This volume considers walking in the city from a variety of perspectives, in a variety of places and with a variety of methods, to engage with the question of how walking can contribute to the sociological imagination and reveal sociological knowledge. Bringing together new research on sites across Europe, Walking in the European City addresses the nature of everyday mobility in contemporary urban settings, shedding light not only on the ways in which walking relates to other social institutions and practices, but also as a method for studying urban life. With attention to intersections of race and ethnicity, gender and class, as well as the manner in which processes of gentrification transform urban space, this book examines questions of access to public places, exploring the ways in which urban dwellers’ use of and relation to neighbourhood spaces are shaped by inequalities of status and power. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, geography and anthropology with interests in urban studies, mobility and research methods.

This book explores everyday walking in contemporary urban life. It brings together important theoretical and empirical insights to understand how the ‘walkability’ of urban spaces can be imagined, planned for, and experienced. The book focuses on the everyday experiences of the urban walker, the bodily experiences of walking, and different walking research methods. It goes beyond the conventional focus on walkable places by delving into the ways in which urban space is consumed and produced through different ways of walking. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and international secondary sources, the book examines how walking is socially and materially co-produced, focusing on pedestrian practices, infrastructures, and the social nature of walking. Chapters in the book offer key explorations of the cultural and social inclusions and exclusions of navigating the city on foot. The book considers transport planning and policy promoting pedestrian movement, pedestrian infrastructures, the politics of walking, and social interactions of urban pedestrians. The book offers vital analyses of how different but overlapping dimensions of walking and their relationship with urban space are often overlooked, and the importance of centring the lived experiences of walking in understandings of pedestrian practices. This book provides a timely contribution to the field of mobilities due to a growing interest in urban walking. It will be of interest to students and scholars of urban studies, human geography, sociology, and public health.

This guidebook presents the Dartmoor Way, a 175km (109 mile) walk around Dartmoor National Park in Devon. Walked in 10 day-long stages between 12.75 and 20.5km (8 and 12.75 miles) in length, this waymarked route skirts the edge of England's largest granite moorland, passing through towns including Ivybridge, Ashburton, Okehampton and Tavistock. Also included is the 2-day High Moor Link, which crosses the moor's higher ground. With 1:50,000 scale OS maps for each stage, the book includes notes on nature, history and local landmarks such as Haytor Rocks, the Teign gorge and Dewerstone crags. Taking in ancient paths, tracks and quiet lanes, the route is mostly at low level and is suitable for most walkers, although some stages involve short, steep climbs and descents. Accommodation, parking and public transport are covered, allowing walkers to choose whether to tackle the route in one go or as individual day walks. Each stage includes low-level detours in case of bad weather, as well as details of walking the route in reverse, giving readers flexibility over direction of travel. Further options include creating shorter loops joined by the High Moor Link, or walking the entire circular route in 7 days.

This guidebook describes the St Oswald's Way and Northumberland Coast Paths, both long-distance trails through Northumberland. St Oswald's Way (156km, 97 miles) begins in Heavenfield and traverses parts of Northumberland National Park and visits Hadrian’s Wall, the Simonside Hills and the beautiful Coquet Valley, before continuing up the coast to Lindisfarne (Holy Island). The Northumberland Coast Path (100km, 62 miles) takes in the whole of the Northumberland Coast AONB with its breathtaking coastal scenery and birdlife. Both trails converge on Holy Island, with the Coast Path continuing up to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Each trail can be walked in a week. The guide includes practical advice on when to go and what to take, and information on the region, its weather, wildlife, history and heritage. Detailed route descriptions and clear, step-by-step instructions are accompanied by 1:50K OS mapping. Public transport options and accommodation listings are also given. Described as the cradle of Christianity in England, Northumberland's history is long and varied and the trails reflect this with visits to some magnificent architecture – rambling castles, Norman churches, medieval abbeys – as well as sites of enormous archaeological and geological interest, quiet villages and Sites of Special Scientific Interest. From rugged hills to coastal dunes this is one of Britain's most beautiful landscapes for walking and backpacking far away from it all.