Benefits Of Walking

 

Walking can offer numerous health benefits to people of all ages and fitness levels. It may also help prevent certain diseases and even prolong your life.

Walking is free to do and easy to fit into your daily routine. All you need to start walking is a sturdy pair of walking shoes.

Winter is coming. Soon there will be a nip in the air. The brilliant outdoor weather may make you feel like including walking in your fitness regime. But are you really sure about how effective it will be? Of course, walking is known to help in digesting food, keeping you active and energetic. But even then, the benefits of walking vary from person to person, depending on the objective you are trying to achieve. So before you kick off, read up on how to best approach a walking routine.

Benefits of walking: Factors to keep in mind

Its intensity: Choose a speed that works best for you. You could start off slow initially, and then amp it up once you get fitter and have better stamina. It goes without saying that more you walk, the better you will get at deciding what works for you. Just don’t expect instant results.

Wear the right shoes: Walk with comfortable shoes. Your walking shoes should have flexible soles. They should be cushioned and lightweight too.

Vary your walking pace: Studies have proven that walking at varying pace can help in burning up to 20 per cent more calories, leading to a healthier lifestyle. So, instead of a steady pace, change your walking speed.

Accompany with exercise: Don’t just assume that walking is enough. Add basic exercises like upper body pulls and squats. This way you will keep your body toned and will prevent yourself from gaining weight. Add these exercises with your walking routine to increase your fitness levels.

Healthy diet: What's the point of all the physical effort if you are not watching what you are eating? A healthy diet is as important as any workout regime. Eat clean and healthy and stay fit.

Tip: The key is to remain balanced, and not do too much too soon.

Benefits of walking: Why brisk walks help

So you have a hectic schedule and have no time to go to the gym or do outdoorsy exercises? Or is the membership to the fancy gym prohibitively expensive? Why not just get up and walk? You don’t need any equipment or a designated place to walk. Just put on a pair of good trainers and get off your couch! Here are a few reasons why brisk walking will be good for you:

High-intensity training: Brisk walking is more effective than a regular slow-paced walk. A study by researchers from the University of Virginia found that women who did three shorter, fast-paced walks a week (plus two longer, moderate-paced ones) lost five times more belly fat than those who simply strolled at a moderate speed five days a week.

Increases metabolic rate: Walking at a faster speed tricks your body into dipping into your fat stores for energy. In the process, you build muscles and raise your basal metabolic rate which helps you burn more calories throughout the day even when you aren’t exercising.

Good for the heart: Brisk walking is good cardio and lowers the levels of LDL (bad cholesterol), increasing the levels of HDL which is good for the heart. According to The Stroke Association, a brisk 30-minute walk daily helps control high blood pressure and reduces the chances of stroke by 27 per cent.

Tones your legs, glutes and tummy: Walking tones your calves, quads and hamstrings and lifts the glutes. If you walk at an incline, it is all the more effective. Maintain a good posture while walking as that will help tone the abs and waist as well.

Boosts memory: A study by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that brisk walking for 40 minutes thrice a week could increase the volume of the hippocampus by two per cent(1). Walking will also slow down dwindling of mental skills associated with old age.

Benefits of walking: Tips to start off

All ready to get going? Read these tips to start a walk that works for you.

Rack up 15,000 steps each day: Be it through MapMyWalk or your fitness band, it's suggested to keep a track of the number of steps you walk per day. Walking 15,000 steps per day might sound arduous at first, but once you start working on it, it is very doable. Intensifying your walk will not even lead to sore muscles.

Walk thrice a day for 20 minutes each: Opt for three 20-minute walks instead of a long-stretch walk. In fact, walking 15-20 minutes after every meal helps in controlling blood sugar levels better than taking a long 45-minute walk once in a day. So why not make the most of your time and walk in intervals.

Walk uphill:  While walking on an elevated path, you must have noticed that you get more exhausted and your heartbeat increases. This is because while walking uphill, you build more muscles. This helps in increasing the metabolic rate. So, lean forward a bit and slow your pace while walking uphill to avoid unnecessary strain on your muscles. Be slow and steady at first, and then increase the frequency of these uphill walks to exploit it the most.

Drink green tea prior to walking: A boosted metabolism can be a sure win-win for burning extra kilos. Green tea does exactly that. A perfect blend of caffeine and catechins together catalyse the fat-burning process, where the former is known to induce fat-burn by promoting thermogenesis and the later enhances fat oxidation.

Vary the pace and take one-minute interval break: No one likes monotony. Neither does our body. Maintaining a steady rate while walking should be ruled out and walking at varied speed should be incorporated in your walking routine. Studies show that this change in practice can enhance calorie burning by 20 per cent. Also, try and include one-minute intervals in your walking routine, this will help you burn more calories.

Skip sugary drinks: Do you think consuming dense sugary drinks such as Gatorade do good to your workout routine? Well, these drinks are a big no-no while undergoing a less intense workout routine. This is because these sugary drinks provide you with way more than the number of calories burnt during a low-intensity workout.

Consume the right amount of water: According to a study, consuming more water speeds the rate of weight loss. In fact, increasing your water consumption by 1.5 litres per day can burn 17,400 calories in a year!

Tip: Try all of the above for maximum benefits of walking.

Benefits of walking

How does one walk smartly for maximum benefits of walking?
Incorporating small walks whenever possible can be miraculous for getting in shape. Parking your car a bit away from your door, taking the staircase, ditching escalators and opting to walk instead of taking your car can make you get the waistline you dream of.

Does music add value to the benefits of walking?

Music can have a soothing effect on your mind no matter what the situation is. It can act as a mood-changer and revitalise you in minutes. So when you step out for a walk the next time and you don't have a walking companion, make music your friend. Make a zestful playlist to help keep you going. You would be shocked to notice that with your earphones on, you can cover those extra miles easily.

1. Improve Circulation

Walking wards off heart disease, brings up the heart rate, lowers blood pressure and strengthens the heart. Post-menopausal women who walk just one to two miles a day can lower their blood pressure by nearly 11 points in 24 weeks. Women who walk 30 minutes a day can reduce their risk of stroke by 20%, and by 40% when they stepped up the pace, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

2. Shore Up Your Bones

Walking can stop the loss of bone mass for those with osteoporosis, according to Michael A. Schwartz, MD, of Plancher Orthopedics & Sports Medicine in New York. In fact, one study of post-menopausal women found that 30 minutes of walking each day reduced their risk of hip fractures by 40%.

3. Enjoy a Longer Life

Research finds that people who exercise regularly in their fifties and sixties are 35% less likely to die over the next eight years than their non-walking counterparts. That number shoots up to 45% less likely for those who have underlying health conditions.

4. Lighten Your Mood

Walking releases natural pain­killing endorphins to the body – one of the emotional benefits of exercise. A California State University, Long Beach, study showed that the more steps people took during the day, the better their moods were. 

5. Lose Weight

A brisk 30-minute walk burns 200 calories. Over time, calories burned can lead to pounds dropped.

6. Strengthen Muscles

Walking tones your leg and abdominal muscles – and even arm muscles if you pump them as you walk. This increases your range of motion, shifting the pressure and weight from your joints to your muscles.

7. Improve Sleep

Studies found that women, ages 50 to 75, who took one-hour morning walks, were more likely to relieve insomnia than women who didn’t walk.

8. Support Your Joints

The majority of joint cartilage has no direct blood supply. It gets its nutrition from joint fluid that circulates as we move. Movement and compression from  walking “squishes” the cartilage, bringing oxygen and nutrients into the area. 

9. Improve Your Breath

When walking, your breathing rate increases, causing oxygen to travel faster through bloodstream, helping to eliminate waste products and improve your energy level and the ability to heal.

10. Slow Down Mental Decline

A study of 6,000 women, ages 65 and older, performed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that age-related memory decline was lower in those who walked more. The women walking 2.5 miles per day had a 17% decline in memory, as opposed to a 25% decline in women who walked less than a half-mile per week.

11. Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

A study from the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville found that men between the ages of 71 and 93 who walked more than a quarter of a mile per day had half the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than those who walked less.

12. Do More for Longer

Aerobic walking and resistance exercise programs may reduce the incidence of disability in the activities of daily living for people who are older than 65 and have symptomatic OA, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management found.