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Step aside, “fart walks.”
While breaking wind on a stroll has gained a following for its health perks, you might want to consider adding another element to your walking regimen.
Or, rather, taking one away: your phone.
Reporter Serene Madani recently embarked on a mission to walk for an hour each morning without checking her phone until afterward. Within a week, she discovered four major benefits — and now plans to make “phone-sober walks” a regular part of her routine.
“This challenge was one of the healthiest things I’ve ever done for myself,” Madani wrote in Women’s Health this week.
“I love the sense of structure that waking up and walking for an hour provides, and even more, I enjoy feeling like my mind and body are on the same page when it comes to my emotions, the way I move and my overall wellbeing,” she continued.
Even without ditching her phone, it’s easy to see why walking helped.
Beyond burning calories, improving heart health, managing blood sugar and perhaps even reducing dementia risk, the low-impact exercise also delivers significant mental health benefits.
Research shows walking can lower stress and anxiety, lift mood, enhance sleep and even boost self-esteem — all things that doomscrolling on your phone can directly undermine.
One of the first benefits Madani noticed was quieter, calmer mornings. To fit her walk in before work, she started waking up two hours earlier and relied on an analog alarm clock to avoid using her phone immediately after waking.
Adjusting her schedule and resisting the urge to check her phone or hit snooze was a struggle at first, but she began noticing the payoff within just a few days.
“I didn’t have that sense of trepidation that I normally did when I woke up and checked my phone immediately,” Madani said in Women’s Health. “Instead, I ate my breakfast, took my time to get ready and then went for my walk.”
When she got back, she avoided immediately looking at her phone, instead prioritizing tasks like taking a shower or reading.
“Best of all, I noticed the calm from having a little more structure in my mornings lasted throughout the day,” she said.
That calm helped her be more productive — at home and at work.
After her morning walk, Madani found she was able to tackle tasks more efficiently and check off items she had been putting off for days.
“I was kind of shocked at how much better my mind felt, and this clearer headspace helped me get those to-do list items done in no time at all,” she explained.
Being more present was another major benefit. When Madani left her phone behind, she noticed her surroundings in a way she hadn’t before, no longer distracted by her screen or music in her headphones.
At first, the lack of stimulation felt awkward, but she quickly found a solution in so-called “color walks.”
It’s like a solo game of “I Spy.”
You pick a color and try to spot as many objects in that shade as possible while you pound the pavement.
“For the first time in a while, I felt like I was actually awake, and not just a passive observer of my own life,” Madani wrote in Women’s Health. “Fully appreciating nature grounded me and filled me with a sense of calm that I hadn’t felt in ages.”
Experts say there’s science behind this feeling.
“Having an opportunity to really become aware and embodied in our senses changes the neurobiology of our state of being,” said Dr. Susan Abookire, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
“It activates the parasympathetic nervous system and kind of lets the other stuff rest,” she added, noting she regularly takes students into nature to help them relax and recharge.
Finally, the combination of being more relaxed and waking up early for her walks also helped Madani get a solid eight hours of shuteye each night.
While it was tricky at first, she said adjusting her internal clock made mornings “less painful” and left her energized for the day.
Avoiding her phone likely helped too. Surveys suggest that up to 80% of Americans check their phones within 10 minutes of waking — a habit experts say can trigger stress and start the day on a negative note.
“When you wake up, your brain is in a state called ‘sleep inertia,’ a groggy transition between sleep and wakefulness. This is a delicate period when your cognitive functions are not yet fully restored,” psychologist Antonio Kalentzis told Advisory Board.
“Grabbing your phone and flooding your brain with notifications, social media feeds or emails overstimulates your prefrontal cortex, which handles decision-making and impulse control,” he continued.
“This barrage of information can lead to mental fatigue before you’ve even gotten out of bed, leaving your mind cluttered and unfocused for the rest of the day.”