Whenever we get ill, we go to doctors and are quite often asked if we walk in the morning or evening. Because most of the causes of our illnesses are due to lack of physical activities in our daily life. Our lifestyle has somehow become such that most of us aren’t doing any sort of physical exercise to keep ourselves fit and healthy. Our food habits have also changed considerably from simple and nutritious to fast and junk. Therefore, the doctors invariably recommend taking a regular walk in the morning and/or evening to keep ourselves fit and healthy. It also naturally helps us in the prevention of usual health-related issues like heart, blood pressure, indigestion, joint paints, excess weight, diabetes, immunity, stress, memory and a whole lot of other things.
Contents
- Basic requirements for a walk
- The top 20 health benefits of walking regularly
- 1. Improvement of Blood Circulation
- 2. Improvement of the Digestive System
- 3. Helps maintain blood pressure
- 4. Improves the health of heart conditions
- 5. Helps in burning calories and reduce weight
- 6. Reduces joints pains and strengthens bones
- 7. Reduces Blood Sugar and controls diabetes
- 8. Improves Muscular System
- 9. Reduces the risk of cancer indirectly
- 10. Improves immunity of the body
- 11. Improves Memory
- 12. Reduces the risk of dementia
- 13. Increase in Lung Capacity
- 14. Reduces Stress from life
- 15. Helps in producing Vitamin D
- 16. The ageing process gets delayed
- 17. Mood upliftment takes place
- 18. Increase in creativity
- 19. Increase in productivity
- 20. Increase in Social activity
- Tips for those who are new to walking
Basic requirements for a walk
Let us first check out our requirements for taking a walk. Firstly, you should wear comfortable clothes according to the season. A pair of comfortable walking shoes. Also, you can decide to carry a bottle of water to keep yourself hydrated during summers. Besides all this, you need the motivation to take up walking and continue it on a regular basis.
Motivating factors for regular walking habit:
- If you helplessly feel that you lack the motivation to get up and go for a walk on your own then ask a friend to join you. It will help both of you to keep motivating each other and maintain regular walking.
- If you have a pet dog at home, you can take it for a walk in the morning/evening.
- Make it a habit to walk to your nearby shops or places at a walking distance instead of going by a vehicle.
- Decide on walking routes which are quiet and full of natural surroundings. It could also be a park having sufficient greenery and fresh air.
- Try to explore new walking routes to avoid monotony and boredom. New paths will also keep you in good moods.
- You can also try joining a walking group of regular morning walkers, who are in a daily habit of walking. You can ask them to call you from home so that you don’t make excuses for avoiding morning walk for some reason or, the other.
- Another motivating factor can be taking a walk for social cause sponsored by various agencies on account of promoting a certain awareness in public.
The top 20 health benefits of walking regularly
1. Improvement of Blood Circulation
Our brain requires an adequate amount of oxygen and glucose to function in a better way. As walking improves our blood circulation, it also reduces the LDL cholesterol which clogs the arteries which are responsible for strokes. Thus, walking helps in better flow of blood in the body and brain thereby improving the health of most of the body cells. Overall improvement in the functioning of each and every part of the body can be ensured by a regular walking habit.
2. Improvement of the Digestive System
We all are aware of the discomforts of having an improper digestive system as it is one of the most commonly present ailments in our society. We often face gastric problems, bloating, indigestion, constipation, diarrhoea and liver problems. However, walking improves our digestion by improving blood circulation to the digestive tract and movement of intestines. Besides walking, you must keep good food eating habits and drinking an adequate amount of water daily.
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3. Helps maintain blood pressure
High blood pressure due to hypertension is another common ailment prevailing in our society. It has been found during research studies that those patients who regularly walked for sixty minutes per day for three months got their blood pressure reduced considerably and also gained stamina. So, walking helps you keep your blood pressure in check.
4. Improves the health of heart conditions
It has been often found that people with less physical activities are more prone to heart diseases. Adults over 60 years are physically less active and hence more likely to get heart-related ailments. Such patients should take up at least 20 to 30 minutes of walking per day to avoid heart disease and stroke.
5. Helps in burning calories and reduce weight
Walking turns out to be handy when it comes to burning calories and helps lose your weight to quite an extent. The more you burn your calories, the more you will lose your weight. Now, burning of calories depends on certain factors like the speed of walking, distance walked and the path, whether it is uphill or just plain. Experiments have proved that 50% of people who walked regularly lost their weight by 2 to 3 kgs. So, it is generally found that walking is the simplest way of losing weight to some extent.
6. Reduces joints pains and strengthens bones
Walking reduces joint pains due to arthritis especially that of knees and hips, as they get lubricated by movement of these parts of the body in regular motion. As walking is a low-impact exercise, it helps in preventing loss of bone density. Thus, it reduces the risk of osteoporosis, fracture and injuries. Since bones constitute for our basic structure of the body, healthy and strong bones improve our body postures, strength and stamina.
7. Reduces Blood Sugar and controls diabetes
Our lifestyles combined with changed food habits has mainly been responsible for this widespread disease in every family. Taking a short walk for 15 minutes may improve your blood sugar levels after each of your meals. It has been found in various research studies that a 3000 to 5000 steps of brisk walk a day help keep type 2 diabetes in check. So, if you do want to control your sugar levels, brisk walking every day is the easiest way to do it.
8. Improves Muscular System
Similar to bones, muscles also form a significant basic structure of the body to provide you strength and body postures. As we grow, after a certain time we tend to lose muscles gradually. So, walking not only helps prevent loss of muscles but also tones up and strengthens the muscles of legs, hips, back and arms, too.
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9. Reduces the risk of cancer indirectly
Studies have shown that the lifestyle coupled with food habits are cause for another significant health issue. Poor physical movements are primarily responsible for weight gain and which is often a cause for the building of cancer cells in the body. Since walking helps in reducing weight, it indirectly assists in reducing the risks of cancer. Studies have found that those patients undergoing cancer treatment have shown fewer side effects of chemotherapy, who walk regularly. It also assists in lowering the risk of breast cancers.
10. Improves immunity of the body
Our body’s immune system is mainly responsible for preventing us from infections and diseases. Walking is the easiest way to enhance immunity. Walking for 30 minutes a day can boost the activities of our immunity cells, viz., the B-cells, the T-cells, and the killer cells. It helps in releasing white blood cells at a faster rate to enable our body to heal at a quicker pace.
11. Improves Memory
It has been found by the scientists that the organ in our body which is responsible for memory shrinks with growing age and hence we start losing our memory. But walking helps in keeping the size of that organ healthy and robust. Therefore, walking every day is good for boosting our memory power.
12. Reduces the risk of dementia
A condition of the brain in which there is a gradual loss of memory and loss of recognition begins to take place is known as dementia. It eventually makes us forgetful of performing our day to day functions and become totally dependent on others. Daily walking at a moderate speed helps us from dementia and improves memory, especially in old aged persons.
13. Increase in Lung Capacity
Walking increases our lung capacity because as we walk, we require to breathe in more oxygen than when we are at a still position. This breathing in and out of large amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide helps us in increasing our lung capacity. Thus, it increases our stamina to work for longer duration without getting tired.
14. Reduces Stress from life
Since walking increases our blood circulation, it helps reduce stress because it provides more nutrients and oxygen to our body cells. It stimulates our nervous system and decreases the production of stress hormones. When we breathe in and out while walking, it releases our tensions also.
15. Helps in producing Vitamin D
Vitamin D is essentially responsible for strengthening of our bones, preventing cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes type 1. So, you can very well understand the necessity of Vitamin D for the body. Hence, walking for 30 minutes in the early morning helps us generate the needed amount of Vitamin D from sunlight in the most natural way. Exposure to sunlight while walking works wonders for us.
16. The ageing process gets delayed
Studies have shown that those people who walked for 30 minutes every day lived longer than those who led an inactive lifestyle. It helps in many age-related problems as the circulation of blood increases the flow of oxygen and nutrients to body cells and keep them active for longer durations. Several ageing signs can also be dealt with when you choose to walk without skipping any day in between.
17. Mood upliftment takes place
Numerous scientific studies have proved that physical activity can prevent depression in a person. Physicians and psychiatrists usually recommend walking to help uplift your moods when in depression. Whenever we feel sad or depressed, we can take a walk and get some fresh air to feel better. This is a time tested method to uplift our mood.
18. Increase in creativity
Walking helps us to increase our creativity. It helps us calm our nerves and relax our brain activity. While walking, we are free of any pressures to meet any deadline or any expectations. This helps us to think in a more systematic manner and coherently plan our next moves. So if whenever we are stuck up with any problem, let us take a walk and find a way out more easily and creatively.
19. Increase in productivity
Since regular walking makes us more active and energetic, we tend to increase our productivity substantially. So wherever we are, our response to various stimulation improves highly. We become more agile and active in all our activities.
20. Increase in Social activity
When we go for a walk regularly, we naturally tend to make new friends. And we look forward to meeting them every day. Also, with the increase in stamina, we do not hesitate to participate in any walk organised for a social cause. Thus helping in a social cause comes naturally. At the end of the day, it fills us with positive energy and peace of mind.
Tips for those who are new to walking
- Do not go for long distance walking from the first day.
- Start with 10 minutes of walking every day and then increase the duration to 30 minutes. Gradually increase the timings to 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening.
- Start with a moderate pace and then gradually increase your speed and briskness to your comfort. Do not exhaust yourself.
- When you feel comfortable enough, take your limit to walk 10,000 steps per day with breaks. Keep drinking water always at your hand and never leave yourself thirsty.
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