Alveena Ahmad
A great way to maintain your overall health is to get engaged in physical activity. Strengthening your bones, reducing excess body fat, and increasing cardiovascular fitness can be achieved through walking. Walking has been considered to have a low impact on health as compared to other strenuous exercises but studies have proved that even a minimum of 30 minutes of walking every day can improve your fitness levels significantly.
The numerous health benefits of walking can be learned through the following:
Helps to burn calories:
It may be not as fast as that of any vigorous exercise, but walking also helps to burn calories. Your speed of walking, the distance covered, the terrain, and your weight are the important factors that help to lose weight.
Good for the heart:
Studies have proved that walking for five days a week reduces the risk of coronary heart disease by almost 19 percent. When you increase the distance that you walk per day, you decrease the risk to an even lower level.
Lower sugar levels:
When you take a short walk after a meal, it helps to reduce blood sugar levels. If you take a walk for 45 minutes a day, can help you maintain blood sugar levels to normal.
Reduces joint pain:
When you walk, it helps to lubricate the muscles that support the joints and strengthen them. This is why; walking provides benefits to people who suffer from arthritis and reduces their pain.
Better immune functions:
For an experiment, 1000 individuals were tracked during flu season and it was found that people who walked at a moderate pace for 30 to 45 minutes had 43 percent fewer sick days. They also had fewer upper respiratory tract infections overall and were at a lower risk of developing seasonal flu.
Increased energy:
Most of the time people feel too tired to go for a walk. But science has proved that when you go for a walk even when you are tired, it boosts your energy more than what you can get from a cup of coffee.
Keeps your mood good:
For mental health, a walk is considered really important. When you walk, it boosts your self-esteem and reduces symptoms of depression. In order to get the benefits, aim for 30 minutes of brisk walking every day and make it a part of your life.
Creative thinking:
When you walk, it clears your head and helps you to think creatively. Researchers have found that when people walk, it opens up a free flow of ideas for them and increases their creativity along with physical activity.
