Walking wins hands down. It beats other exercise because its economical, easy, safe, you can do it anywhere and can visit with friends while you are at it. No training required and not much equipment, maybe a shoe upgrade and body lights for the dark days. You can start at your front door. You control the time, the place and the pace. Chances are you already walk for pleasure, for errands and for exercise.

Aging fitfully is about dreaming up realistic ways to look after our senior selves, to empower ourselves into well-being, because the science is right: giving more time to moving our bodies measurably improves our health.

Today, let’s talk about doing that by super-sizing your walking, not because I’m an expert but because I’m not. I’m 79 years old and my battle is to save my bones from melting away before I do. I’m coping with the same stuff you are: sore joints, challenging knees and a limited budget, but one year into a concerted effort to focus on my fitness, I guarantee it pays off.

On the menu today: rucking. (It does invite off-colour, comments, doesn’t it?) Supposedly derived from rucksack, rucking amounts to walking while carrying weight. Not two grocery bags stretching your arms, more like those children off to school with giant, loaded backpacks. They are rucking.

I discovered it by accident. Going up a steep, eight-block hill, with a backpack of books for curbside library delivery, I noticed my legs were working noticeably harder than my usual hill-walking. Thought bubble: “I could beef up my exercise every day just by loading things in my backpack.” I boasted of my discovery to a friend who replied, “Yes. That’s called rucking.”

What!? Just a minute. I invented this.

Turns out it is already a thing and the U.S. army has been doing it for years. Women soldiers ruck with 35 pounds on their backs, hiking for hours. Okay. Clearly an idea whose time has come.

I tried several backpacks, various amounts of weight, tried it under and over my winter coat, and eventually realized that a purpose-built, weighted vest was needed for comfort and staying in place, not slapping my backside and slipping off my shoulders. Friends found me a 12-pound rucking vest in Walmart. That’s better. (See it at youtube.com/agingfitfully.)

I gather from my daughter, fit and knowledgeable, that there are more expensive, well-balanced vests you can order on-line, some that let you add and subtract weights. The guideline is starting with 10% of your body weight. It’s fine to start with less. Just start.

If you do it alone, you can pick your own route, follow your druthers, plug into an audio book or music and away you go. I love walking to music, which undoubtedly looks odd as I stretch my gait to match a slow song, soldier along to a march or mimic a waltz.

Recovering from something? Rucking is easy to get into if you are coming from an injury, surgery or a long sedentary stretch. Walk to the corner and back. Walk around the block. Get your cane or your walker and off you go. Slow and steady to start because falling is not an option. I see pedestrians with poles marching smartly past my house. Those exercise your arms and shoulders too. Try pavement or a nature trail, your choice. Walking and rucking let you build up your mobility, get some fresh air and on a good day, some sunshine. This year’s hometown bonus so far: no icy sidewalks.

You already know the walking part. Keep walking. Add hills. When you want more, Super-Size. Add your rucking vest for more cardio, more strength building, more fitness, and all you are doing is walking. Well, rucking.

Next time, let’s talk about fitness and blood sugar, pre-diabetes, and diabetes where exercises and diet are critical to self-management.

Margaret Archibald is a 79-year-old Kamloops retiree, who is neither medically nor fitness trained. She is not qualified to diagnose nor recommend health or fitness. She is simply learning how to reach for her own fitness, bound and determined to keep on loving aging.