Walking may be one of the most underrated ways of exercise, but it has good mental and physical health benefits. The benefits present themselves based on the intensity, the duration and frequency of the exercise. For mental health, walking is a form of exercise which means that while you work out you are releasing the body’s natural happy hormone. So, walking is great for stress relief and catching a mental break on those hard days. Walking helps reduce anxiety, too. Now, let’s talk about the physical health of walking!
Heart Health
Walking helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular distress. Walking, like other exercises, also lessens the chances of hypertension, high cholesterol levels and even the dreaded coronary heart disease by getting your heart rate up daily through walking.
Drops Blood Sugar Levels
You may have heard people tell you to take a 10-minute walk after eating and that is because walking helps reduce the amount of blood sugar released during a meal. The exercise also helps teach the body how to effectively use the blood sugar which can help strengthen muscle and better use of insulin.
Reduces Pain
Walking has shown to help older individuals with chronic conditions (such as those with arthritis) reduce the pain levels they experience. Walking also helps reduce back pain.
These are just to name a few of the health benefits of walking. If you are one that experiences heart problems or conditions, you may be told that you will be fit enough for sex if you can walk up 2-3 story flights comfortably. So, walking is also a benefit for intimate activity. Walking up stairs is another way to get in a good exercise. Stair climbing is a bit more demanding on the body as it is twice the exercise as walking on a trail or around the city. You can reach peak exhaustion faster with stair climbing than by going for a brisk walk. Therefore, everyone huffs and puffs going up stairs. Even at a slow pace, you can still burn 2-3 times as many calories than just walking. There are some people who have replaced their regular mode of transportation with walking to their destinations and the results are very similar to the benefits of regularly walking on a daily basis (or at least 3 times a week at 20 minutes per walk).
Any form of walking that you can get done, do it! There are so many health benefits and it’s a great way to get active on a daily basis. If you are just starting back into the working out lifestyle, then you want to make sure you take it easy at first. Learn what your body is capable of and take it one day at a time. You don’t want to exhaust your body straight out of the gate, but you also want to make sure that you are doing it at a pace that works best for you to break a sweat, release those endorphins and reduce any mental/physical stress you may have.
