10 Weird Things Walking Does to Your Body

Your Fingers Swell up Like Sausages When You Walk

Swollen hands and fat fingers are the price you pay for enjoying a walk in warmer weather. Wise walkers remove their rings before going on a long walk. Otherwise, you may feel like they have turned into tourniquets. When you exercise, you are pumping more blood around your body, including into your hands and feet.

With sweating and drinking, you may have an imbalance in your body salt (electrolytes) and fluid balance. As a result, you get swollen hands, and swollen feet, too.

Your Feet Grow a Size During Your Walk

What's happening to your hands is also happening to your feet, only it will happen even in cool weather. Remove those toe rings before you go walking.

You need to expect this and buy walking shoes that are a little bigger than your dress shoes. In fact, it's very smart to go walking shoe shopping immediately after walking your usual workout distance. That way your feet have swollen to the size they will be during your walk. Otherwise, you are likely to end up with blisters and irritated bunions.

You Get a Weird Leg Heat Rash When You Walk

This was a medical mystery for many years. Walkers know it well—an ugly red rash just above the sock line. Usually, it isn't itchy. It just makes your legs look like you have the plague for a few days before it goes away on its own. Because most doctors had never seen it, they couldn't tell you what it is. But it has a name—exercise-induced vasculitis.

Your Nose Runs When You Walk

Is your problem that your feet smell and your nose runs when you walk? You are giving your respiratory system a workout when you walk and that extra air can irritate your nasal passages, especially if it is cold, dry, or windy. You are also pumping more pollen through it, so people with allergies may end up with a drippy nose. Carry tissues. They can come in handy for our next weird walking problem, too.

You Have to Poop—Badly!

Plenty of walkers find themselves urgently praying for a public restroom or portable toilet. Physical activity is good for regularity, but many walkers and runners also have to deal with runner's trots (exercise-induced diarrhea). Luckily, you can carefully watch what you eat and drink before a long walk or run to reduce the risk.

You Get a Black Toenail - Or Lose It Completely

When your toes bang against the toe box of your shoe, it can cause a bruise or blister under your toenail. Sometimes you just end up with a black toenail that takes months to grow out. If you have a blister under your nail, you may lose the nail entirely.

This is not as gnarly as it sounds—the nail grows back. In the meantime, you could always just paint the area where it used to be and pretend you still have a toenail.

You Chafe in Unpleasant Places

When sweat dries you get salt crystals and those rub you raw in all of your body crevices. Your crotch, underarms, under-breast areas, and nipples are particular targets for chafing. You can also chafe where your backpack or hydration pack rubs.

Luckily, there are chafing prevention products you can use to reduce this risk. You just have to remember to use them before you start hurting.

Your Breasts Hurt When You Walk

Both men and women can get breast pain due to walking and other forms of exercise. If you don't wear a bra, you may also experience nipple chafing.

For many people, buying a sports bra that gives the right amount of compression and support is often the quest for the Holy Grail. There are also solutions for men who need chest support as well.

Your Face Turns Purple

Some people get a deep flush when walking in warm weather. The increased heart rate while walking will open up the capillaries in your face, so a healthy glow is expected. A few people just get it a little bit more intensely. Take the usual precautions when walking in hot weather: stay hydrated, and cool off with a splash of cold water whenever you can.

You Get Itchy

Some people break out in hives when they exercise. Others just have itchy legs. An exercise allergy, dry skin, or failure to wash the soap out of your pants may be the culprits. Plus, there's always the risk of ​bug bites and contact with irritating plants such as poison ivy.

Wonderful Reasons to Walk

Weird things will inevitably happen when you walk, but some wonderful things will happen, too. When you walk, you can burn fat, reduce your health risks, add healthy years to your life, make new friends, and see great sights.