When J. Jenkins launched his weekly walking group, “Stoic Sundays,” last spring, one of the early taglines was “Take a walk on the mild side.”

The fitness program isn’t the first to emerge from Jenkins’ store, Ad Astra Running, he says, but it is the first — and only, presumably — to incorporate ancient Greek philosophy into its weekly routes. And, unlike other Ad Astra groups, it’s geared specifically toward those who otherwise might not seek out more strenuous exercise.

“Honestly, it’s tied to our goal at the store of helping make a difference in the community,” Jenkins says. “There’s a large section of our local community that either isn’t interested in running or for whatever reason is prevented from running, or maybe they’re interested in it but it seems like something so far beyond them that they’re intimidated by it.”

So, when Jenkins and his team were in the process of moving Ad Astra to its new location at 734 Massachusetts St. a few months back, he began to develop an outreach strategy. The solution, it turned out, lay in Jenkins’ longtime interest in Stoicism, which he studied as a religion and philosophy major at the University of Tulsa.

The premise behind Stoic Sundays is simple: Get folks talking, and get them moving in the process.

Although Jenkins will usually prepare some talking points beforehand, there’s no homework or reading list for participants. The ancient Stoics, Jenkins likes to point out, didn’t meet in a classroom setting, but instead would hold their discussions while walking.

Stoic Sundays has been on hiatus for about a month due to this summer’s especially sweltering temperatures, but should return by the end of August or the first Sunday after the Labor Day holiday, Jenkins says. The group regularly meets at 4 p.m. at Ad Astra Running before trekking off (leisurely, it should be noted — no one gets left behind, Jenkins stresses) to the riverside trail at Burcham Park, for example, or East Lawrence’s Burroughs Creek Trail.

The health benefits offered through walking are numerous: weight maintenance, prevention and management of conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure, improved balance and coordination, and the strengthening of bones and muscles, just to name a few. For those who have long been sedentary, older folks and the chronically ill among them, it’s an easily accessible (and free) starting point on the road to better health, Jenkins says.

“If you’re not getting up and moving around, you’re creating a situation where it’s going to be harder and harder to do so in the future,” he says. “Even if it’s just a very humble start, just to get up and do a little bit of walking, you’re laying the foundation for that next walk where you might walk a little bit farther … You’re building each week.”

Looking back, Jenkins realizes that the times in his life where he’s been most content have correlated with periods of being active and reading the Stoic texts that have moved and inspired him since his college days.

He hopes to build a like-minded community here in Lawrence. While Stoic Sundays have been mostly small affairs so far, Jenkins says he’d like to increase membership by reaching out to local senior centers or, say, the cardiac rehabilitation program at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

And, while he didn’t start out to create a fitness group for senior citizens, Jenkins, 43, now calls the idea “a perfect match.”

“I wanted to have something for the walkers,” he says. “And, I also think possibly the idea of the deeper conversations might be more appealing to folks that have lived longer lives and are drawing from a deeper well of experience.”

For more information on Stoic Sundays — including updates about meet-up times — visit Ad Astra Running on Facebook or up for the store’s email list at www.adastrarunning.com. Ad Astra Running also also be reached at 830-8353.