Why we walk: the quiet power of a Wellbeing Walk
/A Forward Assist post on what a one-hour walk can do for a veteran's head, heart and recovery.
Ask any of the veterans we work with what gets them through a tough week, and somewhere on the list — usually near the top — you'll find walking with other people who get it. No agenda. No clipboards. No "How does that make you feel?" Just boots on, kettle on at the end, and a couple of hours in good company.
That's what a Wellbeing Walk is, and the evidence behind it is now too strong to ignore.
What the research actually shows
The case for walking outdoors as a mental-health intervention has moved well beyond hunch and folklore. A 2023 systematic review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that physical activity — and walking in particular — is roughly 1.5 times more effective than antidepressant medication or talking therapy alone for mild to moderate depression. Outdoor walking adds a further layer: exposure to green space is associated with reduced cortisol, lower resting heart rate, and improved attention and mood, even after a single session of as little as twenty minutes.
For veterans specifically, the data is even more striking. Programmes like the US Sierra Club Military Outdoors and our own UK contemporaries (Walking With The Wounded, Veterans Walk and Talk) have repeatedly shown that group walking reduces self-reported PTSD symptoms, social isolation and suicidal ideation. The mechanism isn't mysterious. Walking shoulder-to-shoulder is a low-threat way to talk; the rhythm of the steps regulates the nervous system; and the act of being outside, in weather, in a body, with other humans, is the precise opposite of the loop that trauma puts people in.
Why it works for service leavers
If you've served, the format will already feel familiar. You're moving as a small unit. You're outdoors. There's a route, a pace, and a destination. Nobody is asking you to "share your feelings"; you're just walking, and the talking happens — or doesn't — at its own speed. Many of the men and women we work with say more in the second half of a five-mile walk than they have in months of formal appointments. That isn't a failure of clinical services. It's a feature of how regulated nervous systems open up: side-by-side, on the move, with no eye contact pressure and no four walls.
There are practical benefits too. A Wellbeing Walk costs nothing. It needs no referral, no waiting list and no diagnosis. It is sustainable — most people can do a 90-minute walk every week without injury — and it's scalable: one walk leader can hold space for ten or twelve people at a time. For a charity like ours, with limited resources and a community spread across the North East, that matters.
What we see on the ground
At Forward Assist, walks slot in alongside our peer-led IAG, the Salute Coffee Truck outreach, and (soon) the Boulder Crest Warrior PATHH 90-day post-traumatic growth programme. They are often the first contact a veteran makes with us — the lowest-threshold front door we have. From there, people move into whatever specialist support fits: housing, mental health, employment, Salute Her UK for women veterans, family support, or simply more walks.
The benefits we see, week in and week out, are practical and human:
Sleep improves. Veterans who add a weekly walk often report falling asleep faster and waking less in the night within a fortnight.
Isolation breaks. A walking group is a non-clinical reason to leave the house and a reliable point of weekly contact.
The "stuck" stories shift. Trauma narratives that feel impossibly heavy in a counselling room often loosen up at mile three.
Physical health follows. Lower blood pressure, better mobility, gentler weight loss — without anyone calling it "exercise".
Family relationships ease. Partners and children regularly tell us their veteran is calmer and more present in the days after a walk.
A few words of honesty
A walk is not a cure. It will not, on its own, resolve complex PTSD, military sexual trauma, moral injury or chronic suicidality. It is a tool — a very good one — alongside trauma-informed clinical care, peer support, and time. We always encourage veterans who are struggling to stay in touch with their GP, their community mental-health team, or Op COURAGE (the NHS veterans' mental-health service in England).
But on a wet Thursday in Northumberland, with five miles of footpath ahead, a flask of coffee in someone's pack and a quiet conversation about what the week has thrown at you — that's medicine of a different kind. And we will keep prescribing it, free of charge, for as long as we can put one foot in front of the other.
Want to join a walk? Forward Assist runs walks across the North East for veterans, reservists and their families. No experience needed, no referral required — just turn up. Get in touch via enquiries@forward-assist.com or message us on social media.
Forward Assist is a registered charity (no. 1149581) supporting military service leavers, veterans and their families across the UK.
