Walking…We do it all day. At work and at home, it is an essential way to get around but did you know that it had so many benefits both mentally and physically. According to the Arthritis Foundation and the American Heart Association, some of the physical benefits include:
- Improve your circulation
- Stop the loss of bone mass
- Lose weight
- Strengthen the muscles
- Support joints
- Prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes
And some of the mental benefits include:
- Improve your mood
- Improve sleep
- Slow down mental decline
- Improves memory and prevents the deterioration of the brain tissue
Any type of walking can be good for you but the faster you go and more of the body you use the better. What you are probably thinking is “When is the best time to walk?” You can walk any time of the day, but studies have shown that walking in the morning can get you going for the day ahead and boost your mood. Also, it’s free and you don’t have to go to a gym! The thing that is most important to me when I walk in the shoes I’m wearing. You need to have good support in your shoes to walk without injuring yourself. My grandfather once told me, that a good pair of shoes is important because if your feet hurt, your whole body will hurt. How true is that! I try to walk every day for at least 30 mins and 2 days a week I will walk between 60-80 min. I usually get in about 4.5 miles on those days. When I do decide I’m going to go walking I warm up for 5-10 minutes by slow walking and or stretching. You must stretch your legs before you start because you don’t want any cramping in your calves. When you feel warmed up you can start in at a good pace that gets your heart rate up. What I do is walk a route that has some hills in it so I could get my heart rate to a higher level than the pace that I was going at. Other tricks to make you’re walking a bit more fun is to include some intervals in your route. A way to do this is to create a playlist with both higher paced songs and slower ones and mix them up. When the faster song is on increase your intensity a bit until the slower song comes on then slow your pace to a comfortable level. This program works very well to increase your aerobic capacity. Other ways to vary your workout is to attach weights to your legs. This will increase the strength in your legs and slowly those steep hills will become very easy. Mix up the style of walking by changing your stride length, lunging, and doing side cross overs. This will shock the body into using different types of muscles helping you to get a “Total body workout”.
Some other observations I’ve made is that walking increases my creativity and my mood drastically. I can leave on a walk mad and bitter but come back and I will be in a totally different mood. After walks, I’m usually in the best mood of the day. One piece of equipment I can’t live without is my smartwatch or fitness tracker. These devices will tell you the distance you have walked, the number of calories you burned, the total steps, and much more. Using one of these devices will help you track your progress. According to an article in Fit Magazine, you also should set goals for yourself. Start yourself out walking 5 minutes and then slowly increase it to 30-60 minutes 3-5 times a week. One problem I had when I first started was that I would get upset and frown on myself if I didn’t get a walk-in one day. It’s ok if for some reason you can’t walk for one day. Just start up the next day possible and continue on your journey to becoming more fit and healthy.
One benefit I didn’t include above was that walking can also give you skin health. When you walk you get the blood moving in which will remove the toxins that have accumulated in your skin. This will help to prevent and eliminate some wrinkles, fine lines, and other signs of aging. Studies have also shown that a 10 min brisk walk can be just as good as a 45 min workout when it comes to relieving anxiety.
I hope I have shown you some reasons why walking is one of the best activities you can do for yourself both physically and mentally. At least for me, it has really changed my life!
Talk to you later
Joe
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