Walking has many benefits for the body and mind. It lifts your mood, stimulates the cardiovascular system and also ensures that you get to know and appreciate your surroundings better.
To keep yourself physically fit, it is not absolutely necessary to do sweaty workouts on a regular basis. What’s more important is that you move at all.
Regular walking can help you with this. Even if it’s just short walks, you can benefit from them health-wise. It is important that you exercise regularly. You can find out here what benefits walking has for you.
1. Walking improves our mood
Even if we don’t expect anything from a walk, it will almost certainly improve our bad mood and depressed mood. This was the result of a study published in an international psychology journal in 2016. According to this, even low and occasional physical activity such as going for a walk can have a positive effect on our mood. In the study, this also applied to the test subjects who did not know the purpose of the study or who had a negative attitude towards going for a walk.
That’s why it’s recommended to go for a walk, especially in the dark season. This is how you can prevent the autumn blues and winter depression. For example, it is enough to go for a walk during your lunch break. Even if you don’t feel like it beforehand, the walk will be worth it. At the same time, you also stimulate vitamin D production and thus prevent vitamin D deficiency.
2. Walking: A potentially longer life
According to a study from the USA with around 351,000 participants, regular exercise makes us live longer. According to the researchers, regular exercise counts as either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week or 75 minutes of intensive exercise. Any activity that increases the heart rate (compared to the resting heart rate) by 50 to 60 percent is considered moderate exercise. This can also include a brisk walk.
3. Going for a walk as an introduction to a healthy lifestyle
Ingo Froböse explains in an interview with Utopia that walking can be a “good introduction to a healthier lifestyle”. Walks could also improve fitness – provided they are not just “normal strolls” but rather more strenuous walks. So to do this you should walk a little faster than you normally would.
For beginners, walks can also be a good way to prepare the body for more intensive activities such as jogging. According to Froböse, if you go for brisk walks regularly, your joints, tendons and bones can slowly adjust to a more active lifestyle. You can then increase the intensity little by little until you feel ready for your first round of jogging.
By the way: According to Froböse, we don’t have to complete the magical and widespread number of 10,000 steps per day to be physically fit. Instead, each person should find out for themselves what number of steps per day is possible. For example, you could try to take around 3,000 more steps every day than usual. But an app is not absolutely necessary for this. You can also simply listen to your own body feeling.
4. Increased concentration through walking
Do you know the problem where you sit on a task for hours and at some point you just can’t concentrate on it anymore? Sometimes it can help if you take a short break from your work. Because exercise also stimulates the oxygen supply to the brain, so that you can then concentrate better again. Problems that cannot be solved through hard thinking may be easier to tackle after a walk.
5. Walks can relieve depression
A study by the Robert Koch Institute examined the connection between physical activity and mental health. However, this isn’t just about boosting your mood when you go for a walk (like point two). Rather, the study refers to the lasting impact that walking has on the human psyche. The result was that exercise can permanently alleviate the symptoms of mental illnesses such as depression. Exercise also reduces the risk of developing such a disease.
The study states: “Physical training can be effective for depression to a similar extent as drug therapy.”
6. You can discover new things while walking
Walking in unfamiliar places can be an enriching experience. It doesn’t matter whether you drive into the forest or just walk to another part of the city. Maybe you’ll discover a beautiful clearing, a quiet place by the river or a cozy café. The discovery gives you an additional reward for your walk. You can find more inspiration here: Hiking sustainably: 5 tips for harmony between people and nature.
7. Walks can prevent and relieve dementia
Another scientific study examined links between physical activity and dementia. The result was that regular exercise can reduce the risk of dementia. According to the study, this is particularly true for Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia. The researchers also viewed light, brisk walking as physical activity.
And another effect could be observed: physical activity not only reduces the risk of dementia, but can also curb the effects of the disease.
Read more on Techzle\.com:
- Movement games for children: fun for indoors and outdoors
- Stress management: These methods and exercises will help you
- Walking barefoot: That’s why we should go without shoes more often
German version available: 7 Benefits of Walking You Should Not Miss Out On
Edited by Luise Rau
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