Walk your way to better health!
Listed below are some of the top reasons why you should consider adding a walk into your daily routine.
1. Walking with your friends and family can be sociable and fun.
2. Walking helps you to maintain and also improve your overall health – as long as you do it regularly, say 30 minutes most days of the week.
3. Walking can improve your cardiovascular fitness.
4. It can reduce excess body fat.
5. Regular walking makes your heart stronger and can lower your resting heart rate and blood pressure.
6. It can strengthen your bones and muscles.
7. It lowers your change of getting some serious illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis.
8. Walking is good for your mental health. A stroll in nature can boost your mood.
9. Walking is a cheap exercise. You do not need any particular equipment or training.
10. Walking helps to build up your endurance.
11. It does not have to be too strenuous.
12. Walking is considered to be low impact and low risk.
13. It can be done at any time of the day.
14. You can do it anywhere.
15. In bad weather you could take to the stairs, which is aerobically beneficial too.
16. You can set the pace.
17. It is great for those of us who have not done exercise for a while.
18. Walking suits all age categories: those of us who are overweight, elderly, or who haven’t exercised in a long time.
19. Walking is weight-bearing (this means that you carry your own weight) which can help improve your body strength.
20. It is great for your hearts and lungs and can help those with joint problems.
21. Walking improves your balance.
22. To get the most out of walking it is good to set off at a brisk pace. This means that you hold a conversation still but not out of breath.
23. You do not have to walk for 30 minutes solid, you could divide your walking into chunks of 10-15 minutes for example.
24. Music can help you get into a good rhythm but be aware of traffic when you have headphones in!
25. A regular walking routine can lead to other regular healthy behaviours. It can motivate you to reach your goals.
26. If you are aiming to loose weight it is better to do longer stretches of walking.
27. Walking is versatile – you can use stairs, you can get off a couple of steps before home if you use a bus. You could walk your dog or a friend’s dog. You could walk to the shops. You could walk after your dinner or walk your children to school.
28. Wearing a pedometer can help you see how many steps you are taking during the day and you can see you progress over a number of days.
29. A pedometer can be quite a motivational tool to keep you walking regularly.
30. We are recommended to walk 10,000 steps or more per day. It might be interesting to see how many you are actually doing a day, and what you can do to get nearer to that 10,000 goal.
31. Once your body gets use to walking, it is worth increasing your intensity, as this will make you fitter.
32. To add intensity to your walking, you could: add in hand weights, increase your speed, increase your distance, add in hills, and walk for longer.
33. You can walk in a variety of places to get a change of scenery. Walking does not have to be the same route necessarily!
34. You can build up stamina.
35. If you walk at different times of the day you will see different things. Enjoy your surroundings.
36. You could join a walking club and meet new people.
Taking a step forward is taking a step towards better health.
Why don’t you add regular walking into your routine today?