Benefits Of Walking

We live in a world where everything is mechanized. Motor vehicles make a simple, efficient and low-cost physical activity like walking seem like a pain. People prefer traveling short walkable distances on scooters and running on a treadmill instead of walking out in the open. Home delivery options and online shopping has brought walking to a dead end. We constantly fail to realize that not walking is bringing our health to a dead end.

We associate better health and mental alertness with ‘working out’ whereas all you need to do in order to achieve optimal mental and physical capability is literally ‘walk out’. **One 30 minutes ‘out in the open’ walking session daily can do wonders for you in ways you can’t even imagine. **

Not convinced? Let me walk you through the benefits of walking:

Walking strengthens the heart: Walking is the simplest exercise one can do to stay fit and like any every other muscle in the body, the heart also is a muscle.  Muscles grow stronger with exercise and therefore, walking makes your heart stronger and healthy by providing more oxygen and nutrients to our organs.

Walking helps to lose weight: According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “Women between the ages of 18 and 30 who walked at least four hours a week were 44 percent more likely to lose weight during the 15 years they were tracked than those who didn’t walk at all — regardless of what other exercise they did. Adding just 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily routine helps you burn around 150 calories.

Walking helps to shape lower body and torso: When you walk, several muscles are involved in every step which helps build muscle and endurance in your legs and torso. Muscles like the quadriceps at the point of the heel, the gluteus medius and minimus, hamstrings, the paraspinal and lateral trunk muscles in the midsection, the abdominals and lower back muscles are vigorously exercised during a walk.

Walking gives you energy: In a recent study conducted by the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, aerobic exercises, including fast walking, were found to combat chronic fatigue in 400 men and women. Walking improves blood circulation and provides more oxygen to the brain. Walking increases the metabolism of the body and produces several chemicals, including adrenaline which leads to mental and physical alertness.

Walking boosts memory: A study involved 60 sedentary adults aged 60 to 80 who started a brisk walking program of 40 minutes a day three times a week. After a year, MRIs showed the hippocampus region of these adults had increased by about 2%. The walkers also had better performance on memory tests, compared to their scores at the start of the study—an improvement associated with the larger hippocampus. This is because walking keeps the brain alert which allows it to use its full capability in the long run.

Walking helps boost our immunity system: Walking releases an influx of antibodies like neutrophils- a form of white blood cells that help kill invading organisms and natural killer cells- another type of white blood cells that help the body destroy both tumors and viruses. These cells contribute in boosting the immunity of the body.

Walking helps you live longer: The Cambridge University study of 334,000 people found that even a modest amount of activity prolonged life. Statistics suggest that lack of exercise killed twice as many people as obesity. This is because walking, like any other physical activity has multiple health benefits which lead to a longer and healthier life.

Walking helps fight diabetes: Walking helps control type-2 diabetes by lowering blood glucose levels, raising good cholesterol levels and lowering bad cholesterol levels,  improving the body’s ability to use insulin and so on. A good place to start is at 2400 steps per day and gradually increasing the number of steps with time.

**One easy task, so many benefits and this is not even the half of it. **

Find out more about the benefits of walking and get started with a personalized walking program for you recommended by professional doctors only on DocsApp.

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**Team DocsApp. **