Walking is widely recommended for its health benefits. It is one of the easiest ways to get more active, lose weight and become healthier.
Health benefits include:
Walking may be one of the most powerful 'medicines' available.
- Helps to improve your heart health Walking gets the blood pumping without putting undue strain on the cardiovascular system and helps to keep heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and stroke at bay.
- Reduces risk of diabetes Walking every day can help control the blood sugar levels, which, in turn, can help you prevent type 2 diabetes.
- Strengthens bones Your bones tend to become weaker as you age. You can strengthen your bones by walking regularly. This low-impact exercise helps to prevent loss of bone density, thereby reducing the risk of osteoporosis, fracture, and injury. Stronger and healthier bones help to improve posture, and balance.
- Strengthens muscles You can also experience loss of muscle as you age. Walking can help you by strengthening and toning your muscles and helping to prevent muscle loss. Regular walking can strengthen your leg and back muscles.
- Reduces the chances of dementia Daily walking keeps the brain functioning better, by increasing the oxygen that is circulating through your body. The brain will actually shrink in sedentary people. Exercise increases the size of the hippocampus, which supports thinking. Aerobic exercise, such as walking or cycling, can even improve symptoms in patients who already have dementia.
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Uplifts mood
Several scientific studies have proven that physical activity can help prevent depression. Walking is highly recommended to help uplift mood.
- Builds social support Walking can help you build social support and make new friends who will encourage you to walk every day. There are many walking groups available. Also, you can walk to support a social cause.
- Helps to prevent falling in older people Daily walking strengthens a person’s ability to move smoothly. For older people this can prevent falling, which can lead to further health problems.
“Most of the time I am sunk in thought, but at some point on each walk there comes a moment when I look up and notice, with a kind of first-time astonishment, the amazing complex delicacy of the words, the casual ease with which elemental things come together to form a composition that is - whatever the season, wherever I put my besotted gaze - perfect.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail