What are the benefits of walking?
The benefits of walking cannot be overemphasized, it can:
- Improve your health and overall body condition. Studies show that walking reduces the likelihood of heart and vascular disease by three times. In addition, an active lifestyle strengthens bones, regulates blood pressure, tones muscle tissues, and normalizes sleep patterns. Walking a few hours every day, you can reduce the risk of cancerous neoplasms in the mammary glands and eliminate painful sensations in the lumbar region, which were previously chronic.
- partially replace sports and help to reduce excess weight. Walking helps to increase heart rate, which increases blood flow and improves oxygen supply to the muscles. Walking burns up to 5 times more calories than walking at rest.
- extend youth. Aging is associated with high levels of special proteins in the body that contribute to inflammation and all sorts of “aging” diseases. By walking every day, you can reduce the amount of these proteins and keep your youthfulness as long as possible.
- make you feel good. The benefit of walking, even half an hour, is the effect of raising self-esteem, a positive effect on mood, distracting from negative thoughts and energizing. By taking walks in the fresh air, there are all the prerequisites to get rid of impending depression. This is due to the release of endorphins and neurotransmitters when adrenaline is released.
- increase brain functionality. Mental abilities improve as neural connections are strengthened. The benefits of walking are not only in the left hemisphere, which is responsible for analytical work, but provides a wide field for the realization of creative potential. It has been experimentally proven that the ability to generate ideas increases by 60%.
- Save money. A pleasant bonus to all the pluses of walking on foot will be their “free”. In addition to comfortable shoes for a walk, there are no more restrictions; it does not require financial investment. You do not need to buy a season ticket or pay for the services of a trainer. All that is required is a little effort on yourself to turn walking into a daily hobby.
How to incorporate walking and physical activity into your life
To get the health benefits, try to walk at least 30 minutes a day at least 4 times a week. In doing so, control your pace. It should be such that you can talk but not shout or sing as soon as you finish walking. If it is difficult to walk for 30 minutes at a time, take regular small steps (for example, 10 minutes three times a day) and gradually increase the duration. However, if the goal of walking is to lose weight, you will need to engage in physical activity for more than 30 minutes each day.
There are several ways to incorporate walking into your routine easily:
- take the stairs instead of the elevator (at least part of the way);
- get off public transportation one stop earlier and walk to home or work;
- go grocery shopping at distant stores;
- take more walks with your dog, children or partner.
Make walking part of your life
Try to make walking part of your daily routine - for example, try to walk at the same time every day to get the full health and weight loss benefits of walking. You will see the results from regular activity and be pleasantly surprised!
