Walking is something most people never think about, at least until they have to. For Zachary Graham, a research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other has shaped both his personal life and his scientific career. He will share that perspective Thursday as part of IHMS’s Evening Lecture Series, Walk This Way or How I Learned to Start Worrying About Walking.
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Graham said he wants people to remember a simple message.
“Being able to walk is something we take for granted,” he said. “Taking time out of your day to make sure you are active enough to either increase or maintain your walking ability is necessary if you want to increase your chances of living a long and independent life.”
That perspective was shaped in childhood. Graham contracted polio as a young boy, a virus that damaged motor neurons in his legs.
“I was functionally paralyzed as a young kid,” he said.
Though the illness left lasting effects, he eventually relearned how to walk. By age 4, he was using a walker and soon became fully independent. He said he did not think much about those early years until adulthood, when he learned more about post-polio syndrome.
“I started really worrying about walking when I was in my 20s,” he said.
The condition can slowly weaken the surviving neurons decades after infection, making every change in muscle function feel significant.
His scientific interest in walking took shape during his postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for the Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury in the Bronx. Graham conducted animal research there, but he was surrounded by clinical care. Seeing how difficult it was for people with spinal cord injuries to navigate a city like New York made a strong impression.
“NYC is not a place that is easy to manage if you can’t or struggle to walk,” he said.
Today, he studies how aging affects mobility and why walking becomes harder over time. Graham said most people don't think about how much the body is doing with every step.
“Walking is a very complex process integrating almost all major organ systems that we think is pretty easy until it isn’t,” he said.
As people grow older, muscles shrink, tendons lose elasticity, and the senses become less reliable. Neurological and cardiovascular systems also slow down. All of it adds up to smaller strides and slower speeds.
Some of the earliest signs of decline appear in the lower leg. Graham said people tend to lose power and coordination in their calf muscles and begin altering their gait. That makes walking speed an important indicator of health.
“It is pretty well accepted that there is a clear relationship with walking speed and health outcomes,” he said. “The faster you walk, it is likely you are more independent, have a better quality of life, and have less rates of mortality.”
Graham is helping lead a multi-site National Institute on Aging study aiming to understand why walking patterns shift with age. The project, a collaboration between IHMC and Georgia Tech, is examining muscle biopsies, balance, biomechanics, and cognitive response times in 180 adults. He called it “a super cool study” and hopes it will reveal the mechanisms behind the change from ankle-driven walking in youth to more knee and hip-focused movement in older adults.
Even with new technologies on the horizon, Graham said the most effective intervention is familiar.
“Exercise, exercise, and exercise some more,” he said. "Progressive endurance and especially resistance training... are some of the best ways to train. Our bodies adapt exceptionally well to regular exercise."
He also said that losing walking ability can affect more than physical health.
“As our society is based upon the assumption you can walk, not being able to walk can be profoundly isolating,” he said.
Graham hopes his lecture will encourage people to take action while they can. As he put it, “If people adopt just one habit after hearing my lecture, I hope it will be to exercise more.”
The free lecture is Thursday, Dec. 4, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by Graham’s talk at 6 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served.
