Cardiovascular Health
Walking helps to strengthen your heart and lungs and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Walk fast enough to increase your heart rate but not so fast you can't talk, and keep walking briskly for at least 15 minutes. Walking also helps to stimulate lymph circulation, which improves your immune system and helps you resist disease.
Muscles and Bones
Walking every day helps to strengthen and tone all your muscles, not only the large muscles in your legs and arms, but also your core muscles that control your posture and all the muscles around your rib cage and neck that assist in breathing. This also has a benefit as you age: you are less likely to fall and less likely to have osteoporosis.
Weight Control
Being overweight puts you at risk for many different diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease as well as increased risk of cancer. Eating a healthy diet is vital, but only part of the solution. Getting in the habit of walking a half hour or more every day will help to keep your weight down. Not only does it use up calories, it also suppresses your appetite for a while after you walk -- as long as you walk long enough to become physically tired.
Reduce Stress
A nice long walk every day lets you escape the "rat race" for a while. The repetitive action of continuously walking can help induce a meditative state: your breathing becomes regular and deep, your mind stops racing, you switch out of the "fight or flight" stress cycle and switch off stress hormones in your body. You feel calmer and happier. If you walk enough every day to become physically tired you'll sleep better at night as well.
Cognition
Walking improves your cognitive abilities because it increases oxygen and blood supply to the brain, which also increases your attention span. You'll find you can focus more effectively and do better work. That also means you are less likely to develop cognitive problems as you age.
Other benefits
- Walking with others encourages you to keep walking. It also allows you time to share in conversation, enjoy the scenery and feel connected to others.
- It is inexpensive - walking requires no special equipment other than shoes that fit well. You don't have to join a gym or pay a coach.
- Walking can help improve mood disorders, now and in your old age.
How much and how often should you walk? Start off with just ten minutes at a time, until you feel comfortable walking longer. Work up to a half hour or more of brisk walking every day. Once that is no longer a challenge, add some variety to make it more interesting and more difficult. Climb some stairs, walk up and down hill, or jog one block and walk the next, or simply walk for a longer time. Try to develop a habit of walking every day, unless the weather is simply too severe.
Other considerations
Wear comfortable clothing with layers you can put on or remove depending on the temperature. Wear shoes that fit well. Warm up by walking slowly for five minutes before you increase your pace. Cool down at the end by walking slowly for five minutes before you end your walk. Drink some water before you start walking and every ten minutes or so while you are walking. If you want to be hardcore about hydration, weigh yourself before walking and again afterward. After your walk drink a pint of water for every pound of water weight lost during the walk.
Iowa State University: Walking Facts and Benefits
Portland State University; A Review of Literature: of Walking and Bicycling
Georgetown University: The Benefits of Walking
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