SubscribeMallercise: Get Fit While Shopping
The Urban Dictionary defines Mallercise as:
"Walking within a shopping mall with the sole intent of exericising, and not shopping."
Essentially, mall walkers use an indoor shopping centre as a walking track. Some complete several laps of power-walking, others prefer a gentler walk. There are dedicated groups who meet in malls just to walk, and malls themselves are catching on. Many open before the shops inside do, publishing their "mall walker" hours.
But is mallercise really going to make us fitter, or is it just an easy way to kid ourselves that we're getting plenty of exercise - by strolling around window-shopping? And what's wrong with the nearest park, gym or jogging track?
The Mall Walker's Association of America lists the benefits:
- Out of the weather: Inside a climate controlled mall, walkers can dress comfortably and not worry about wind, rain, snow, ice, heat.
- Away from the traffic: No intersections to cross, broken glass or bushes obstructing the path, auto fumes or rush hour.
- Security: Walking with others and with mall security on duty.
- Restrooms and water: always nearby in the mall.
The Guardian, reporting on the spread of mall-walking programs to the UK, says that:
"At the University of Calgary in Canada, physiologists looked at the effects of an eight-week mall-walking programme on health and wellbeing. After two months, results showed that the subjects were walking further and weighed less than when they started. Perhaps more significantly, they displayed high self-motivation, with 63% of subjects mall-walking three or more days a week."
There seems to be cautious but optimistic agreement amongst experts that mall walking is an excellent form of exercise for people who might find gyms intimidating: older people and women are particularly attracted to mallercise. There is also a strong social element - encouraging "high self-motivation" and much lower drop-out rates than gym membership.
If you're counting "A whole afternoon shopping" as your main exercise for a week, and the reality involves a slow meander around your favourite three stores followed by a large cappuccino and muffin, mall walking just might be the way forward.
Are any of Diet Blog's readers regular mallercisers? Let us know your experiences of mall walking, and your views on whether the walkers are deluding themselves into believing it's sufficient activity, or whether it's a valid form of exercise.
i do that. mallercise. walking around the mall is really good for my legs
ReplyThis is not a new thing...I worked at a mall 7 years ago in college and they were publishing mall hours then! When I was opening the store, I used to talk to the walkers. A lot of them said they liked it because things were always changing and the risk of boredom was less.
ReplyNo, it's not new. The malls here have been advertising mall-walking clubs for years. Probably has to do with the fact that in Canada walking in winter outdoors is not everyone's cup of tea and can be hazardous or difficult, especially if you're older. The advertising is very much geared to seniors.
I am not a senior and not part of a club but the malls have been getting bigger, and my time for shopping is getting limited, so that when I have an hour to pick stuff up at the mall I end up pretty much racing from one end to the other and back again. So I usually count these trips as a physical activity, it's called "mall racing":D
ReplyI first saw it in Redding, CA over 25 years ago. My friends and I thought it was hilarious, in part because we were on our way to the trailhead of a week backpack trip.
There's been lots of recent research that point out the value of walking daily for as little as two miles in reducing heart attack rates in 70 and 80 year old men, and the diagnostic value of walking a quarter mile at a steady rate (the inability to do this is strongly correlated with death within 6 years for 70 year olds). So.... if otherwise sedentary people find this an attractive way to get in the walking, then it's a great idea.
ReplyIf you seriously power-walk through the mall, I'm sure it's probably pretty OK exercise if you're normally really sedentary. But for anyone who's active, strolling through the mall is not exactly strenuous activity.
My grandma actually joined a mall-walking group, but she stopped going because she said they were too slow for her! She walks with a couple of other ladies around her retirement community.
ReplyI used to work at the Gap at our local mall, and sometimes I would come in as early as 5:00 AM to start opening. There were always elderly people or women in pairs coming in at the same time, walking around and looking at the store displays. It might be the best time to do it, since you can't go into any stores and stop your walking/break your budget.
ReplyIf you count your steps with a pedometer, you can easily use a trip to the mall to get your daily steps to 10,000 or more.
I would just park as far from the mall as possible and leave the wallet/purse in the car.
ReplyI accidentally got to the mall early one day (mistook the store hours) and walked around with the mall walkers for the hour before it opened... well, I should say faster. I was walking at what I'd guess is about 4-4.5 mph and most of them were going much slower. Beat driving home and coming back.
But to be fair, most of them were very old or very obese. I think what they were doing is very impressive.
Other than the very old and the very obese, the third group I saw were young moms with strollers. They came in herds. Unfortunately, they also seemed to be walking so slowly together that I can't imagine it was much of a workout-- they were decked in nice workout clothes, but not sweating or looking intent even, and being passed constantly by the elderly and the obese.
ReplyYeah, I think it's probably only really good exercise for the really old people and the really obese people who aren't used to much physical activity. If you're in any sort of shape, mallwalkers are probably a bit too slow for you. It's kind of a nice option for them though...it might provide them some sort of incentive for walking. Lord knows that when I first started walking when I was pretty fat, I needed all the encouragement I could get!
Replyi remember the mall walkers from back when i was in high school! there were always groups of seniors at the mall early in the morning on sundays, doing their laps.
me, i couldn't get any exercise from it because i'd be stopping every 10 feet, distracted by pretty shoes :)
ReplyMy grandparents do a similar thing at a place like Lowe's where they live. If it is helpful as the study says it is, it seems like a great idea, especially for older people. With designated times for them to walk, it's a safe environment for people to get exercise.
ReplyActually the woman walking with the stroller even though they did slowly probably got a great work out.
ReplyIt's distance covered not speed speed only gets you distance faster. Also strollers ad weight resistance and is mild weight training.
I think mall walking has benefits for those getting no activity, live in a unpredictable climate or want more of a social workout. For those looking for quicker results just walking in a mall may not provide the benefits they are looking for.
ReplyWonder why it is that we see lots of mallwalkers and stuff, but you never see Walmartwalkers. Clash of cultures, I'm sure.
ReplyMy grandma is going to be 91 years young this summer, sharp as a tack, and she walks to and around the mall near her home every day. It's not part of an organized thing, it's just something she's done for the past 10 years to get her errands done, a little exercise, a little company. She's not slow, either. I think she does it partly for social reasons, she often tells me that the one crummy thing about being 91 and still healthy and mentally "with it" is that she's outlived all her friends (and two husbands). (We need to remember that when we are debating what food and exercise we need to live to 100!) She'll strike up a conversation with anyone at the Mall. She doesn't drive, she has no idea how to even call a taxi, so if she wants to buy groceries, have a cup of coffee, or go to the bank, or whatever - she walks to the Mall.
Anything that gets you moving more that you usually move is a good thing. My challenge is not to walk AT the mall, it's to organize my time better so that I walk or ride my bike TO the mall, or to the grocery store, or whatever. I'm good at doing this when I live at the cottage in the summer but not when I'm back in the city. Too often I don't leave enough time and end up taking the car and kicking myself for being so poorly organized. (I blame ADD...)
ReplyI think that any attempt to exercise, lose weight and make positive lifestyle changes is to be commended.
ReplyI recommend purchasing as MUCH AS YOU CAN!
then you can also deem it weight training as you lunge, err, traipse around the mall.
Im kidding.
Unless youve spied me doing precisely this...then Im not.
MizFit
ReplyLOL, biceps curls with 15 lb shopping bags full of shoes and clothes...LOVE IT! I actually do biceps curls with my groceries before I put them in my trunk (yeah, so it looks weird, but I don't care).
ReplyMall walking is definitely not a new thing. I've been hearing about it for over a decade.
Where I live, there's no nearby mall, but the schools open in the evenings during the cold months for people who want to walk inside.
Personally I'd rather walk outside, whatever the weather, but I think it's great for the people who do it.
ReplyAs part of my weight loss program, I give my patients pedometers and have them walk wherever and whenever they can.
The mall is one of the best places to walk when it is too hot, cold or wet outside.
Since I wear a pedometer as well, I will occasionally walk in the mall in between office hours to get my step count up - especially if I don't want to sweat in my work clothes.
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