Walking is such a simple exercise activity with plenty of benefits.
3 minutes – Blood pressure decreases
5 minutes – Mood improves
10 minutes – Creative thinking improves
15 minutes – Blood levels decrease
30 minutes – Helps to lose weight
40 minutes – Reduces the risk of developing coronary heart disease in the elderly
90 minutes – Reduces the number of depressive thoughts
Walking also improves your longevity. In additional to the enjoyment of being outside walking also firms thighs, lifts the gluts, helps reduce heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and depression. Research suggest every hour spent walking may add two hours to lifespans.
The benefits of exercise depend upon working hard enough to boost the heart rate to 70 – 85% of maximum sustained for 20 to 60 minutes at least 3 times a week. If you aren’t used to this amount of intensity please start slower.
Benefits of any exercise program depends on three elements. That means duration, frequency and intensity of exercise. Current American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine standards suggest all able bodied adults to participate in moderate intensity exercise including brisk walking for at least 30 minutes a day 3 days a week. One can mix and match to suit health, personal abilities and preferences, and daily schedules with walking, swimming, biking, gardening, dancing, golfing, whatever it is to keep and get the body moving. Walking is accessible to do anywhere and it is free.
Literally hundreds of studies show the benefits of regular exercise on health. Walking has been shown to decrease risks of cardiovascular events by 31%, and decrease risks of dying by 32%, benefits which were equally robust in both sexes. protection from risks was evident even at shorter distances of 5.5 miles per week at a casual pace of 2 miles per hour. People walking faster for longer distance had the greatest benefits.
Cardiovascular benefits are biologically plausible, as with all forms of regular moderate exercises walking improves cardiac factors such as blood pressure, obesity, cholesterol, mental stress, diabetes, respiratory disease, and vascular stiffness and inflammation. If this isn’t motivation enough walking can help to protect against dementia, peripheral artery disease, colon cancer and erectile dysfunction.
Walking Helps to Reduce Weight – Here is How That Works
Use your shoes to curb a craving. When all you can think about is food, get up and take a walk. But not to the convenience store. Cravings can be reduced in just 15 minutes after a walk. When you get back home, eat an apple.
Start small. Shorter walks could be all you need to do to lose weight during your first three months of walking. in a 12 week study of significantly overweight women. Those who walked for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, lost weight at a rate similar to women who walked twice as long – 60 minutes, 5 days a week.
Get speedy every now and then. Alternate your regular walking pace with intense 1 to 3 minute intervals (intense meaning conversation is tricky but not so hard that you want to stop talking altogether). Then, dial back to your regular pace for a minute or more to recover. Repeat as often as you can for as long as you want. However you do it, varying your intensity and exertion will dramatically increase the calorie burn during your walks.
Many exercise watches can help keep track of steps, speed, mileage and other valuable tools. I have a Fit Bit which is very beneficial. There are many different devices and tools available as well.
Check out my next article on the benefits of walking backwards.
