Palisades Walking Club Traverses Town During Lunch Break

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Though it may come across as a simple exercise, the benefits of walking are immense.

Walking has been linked to everything from helping manage stress and anxiety to clearing brain fog, promoting better sleep, reducing the risk of depression, and promoting higher levels of happiness and self-esteem.

For those looking for a wellness boost in the midst of their day, Katrina Bajorinas and Fabianna Acuna—who both work out of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Pacific Palisades office—founded Palisades Walking Club at the start of this year.

“We actually started a while ago … for fun, just for us and our friends,” Acuna shared.

When the club first launched, most of the participants were people that Bajorinas and Acuna worked with, as they shared they were hoping to provide a way for more people to take breaks.

“We’re just trying to encourage people to take breaks,” Bajorinas shared. “It’s all about getting out there, taking a good little mental health walk in the middle of your day.”

Then, members of the club launched an Instagram account, which helped the group take off and welcome new participants. There are currently around 20 walkers in total in the club, but not everyone joins for every walk.

Now the group has expanded to include family members of colleagues and others who have joined. The walks typically take place around 12:30 p.m., sometime around lunchtime, several days per week.

“So normally, our path is to meet near the Village and then we usually head toward the bluffs,” Bajorinas shared. “It’s a nice little scenic route and it’s good to just get away from the office for a bit, see the ocean, remember it’s there, and go back to the office.”

The walks usually last around 45 minutes.

“We try to keep it in that range so that anyone who wants to join doesn’t have to take too much time out of their day,” Bajorinas continued. “They can just pop over, walk, get a nice little ocean break and then head back to whatever they’re doing.”

People who are interested in joining the group can reach the founders via Instagram @palisadeswalkingclub. That is where they will respond and let interested participants know where the walk for the day is taking place.

Bajorinas and Acuna shared aspirations of expanding the club in the future, hopefully even planning a charity 5K. If enough people show interest, Bajorinas also said that an evening walking group could launch as well.

“That’s kind of the goal: Anyone who wants to join is more than welcome,” Bajorinas shared. “It’s a mix of people who live in the Palisades, who work in the Palisades. It’s a nice little group.”