Walking is a great way to keep active, and it was an activity taken up by the majority of the world daily during Covid-19 (between 2019-2021).
Walking is great for your physical and mental health, it is an activity that is free, and available to all, it allows you to explore your local area or enjoy further a field with walking holidays, maybe alone or with family/friends or trekking with guides across the world exploring worldwide scenery, landscapes, nature and cultures.
Walking can be enjoyed by all ages, even for those suffering with arthritis or joint pains, as walking can ease the symptom and provide other health benefits, especially boosting mood, when struggling and in pain. In fact walking doesn't just improve our fitness, the benefits of walking are far more, in fact if we walk daily with a simple brisk walk its reported to help us live a healthier life.
maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat.
Prevent or manage various health conditions; heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
Improve cardiovascular fitness
Strengthen bones and muscles
Improve muscle endurance
increase energy levels
Improve your mood, cognition, memory and sleep
Improve balance and coordination
strengthen immune system
reduce stress and tension
We receive more benefits the more frequently we walk and the faster and further we walk.
Benefits;
Walking improves our bodies circulation as it increases our heart rate, lowers our blood pressure and strengthens the heart.
Walking reduces the loss of bone mass and can even stop it, especially for those with osteoporosis.
Walking regularly in your 50/60's is likely to extend your life an average of eight years to those that don't walk.
Walking supports your mental health and its reported the more steps you take the better your mood will be, walking also releases natural painkilling endorphins to the body.
A brisk 30 minute walk can burn 200 calories, supporting weight loss and the reduction of body fat.
Walking tones of our tummy and leg muscles and even our arm muscles if we pump them as we walk. walking increases our range in motion, as it shifts weight and pressure from our joints to our muscles.
Our joint cartilages don't have direct blood supplies and they get nutrition from joint fluid, so as we walk the movement squashes the cartilage allowing oxygen and nutrients to the area, supporting our joint health.
Walking is reported to reduce insomnia.
Walking helps improve our breathing because as we walk our breathing rate increases, causing oxygen to travel faster through our blood stream, which clears the waste products within the blood and improves our energy levels and ability to repair our cells.
Walking just half a mile daily is shown to slow down age-related memory decline and halved the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's than those who walked less.
How to walk to achieve the health benefits;
You should cover 3 miles in an hour to be walking briskly i.e. 20 minute mile.
You should be able to talk but not sing the words to a song if walking briskly.
There are App's to support you to get the correct pace for you to achieve a brisk walk i.e. NHS Active 10. (www.nhs.uk/oneyou/active10/home)
Walk with your head up, your neck, shoulders and back relaxed, swinging your arms freely with a slight bend at the elbow. your stomach muscles slightly tighten and your back straight, walking heel to toe gently rolling your foot. This supports good posture and purposeful movement, turning your normal walk into a brisk walk.
How much walking should I do?
Its recommended in the UK that an adult gets active everyday and that we should be active at a moderate intensity for 150 minutes a week (2.5 hours). Walking is classed as moderate intensity if when walking we are breathing faster, our heart rate is faster and we feel warmer with in ourselves.
A recent study suggests that walking 8000 steps briskly one to two days a week is enough to gain some of the health benefits of walking.
Including walking into our daily routines;
Walking to the shops
Using the stairs instead of the lift.
Walking part of your journey to work.
Leaving the car behind for short journeys.
Walking the Children/Grand Children to school
Doing social walks with friends
Going for a walk after dinner with family/Friends/neighbours
Going for a walk in your lunchtime.
Using walking App's to discover new routes in the local area
Buy Mystery Tour walking guides
Setting daily step goals using trackers, app's or pedometers
Join walking/rambling groups.
Walking is a simple activity that offers powerful long term health benefits, when done correctly, supporting weight loss, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and boosting memory, as well as reducing our risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers etc...
By just putting one foot in front of another at a brisk pace you can improve your health and well-being free of charge.
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