Do you have to do anything special to benefit from daily walking?
Popular advice like the 10,000-step-a-day goal makes you think that maximizing the benefits of walking means going for long walks or maintaining a brisk pace.
What does the research actually show?
Health benefits of walking
According toScienceAlertwalking works the muscles in your arms, chest, back, abdomen, pelvis and legs and although it doesn’t take much effort to coordinate all of these muscles, your brain also gets a workout when you take a walk.
Exercise programs based on short bursts of walking are used in the treatment and rehabilitation of a variety of clinical conditions, including obesity and stroke.
This could also be important information for programs designed to help people prevent weight loss while still receiving benefits from exercise, such as eating disorder treatment programs.
According toInca large study of 140,000 adults by the American Health Sciences Association found that walking just two hours a week—about 15 minutes a day—can reduce disease risk and prolong life.
These findings apply to many forms of exercise.
Science has found that the rhythm of your feet and the gentle attention your surroundings require as you walk increases your creativity and helps you find ways to overcome physical obstacles.
Perhaps this is why many of history’s greatest thinkers were avid mountain climbers.
Why stopping to smell the roses makes walking healthier?
So how do you maximize your chances of realizing all these impressive benefits?
In a recent study, a team of Italian researchers measured the oxygen consumption of study participants as they took short walks of 10 to 240 seconds on a treadmill.
Therefore, walking for short periods of time can give your metabolism more of a workout than walking the same distance without resting.
What they discovered is that our bodies are like machines.
This means that the walks that burn the most energy and therefore have the greatest impact on fitness and health are not the walks that people rush into with the sole intention of running at full speed. force.
In fact, many studies have shown that spending time paying attention to the nature around you also increases overall happiness and health.
The lesson here is, if your goal is to maximize the health benefits of a daily walk, you should feel free to chat, admire the sights, or breathe.
However, there are some notes to keep in mind here.
Second, all study participants were healthy young adults, so these recommendations may not apply if you have specific health problems.
They are definitely not for you if you are a professional or veteran athlete.
This is good news for people who are less diligent about exercising.
But if you’re looking for a manageable way to get a little more healthy out of your walk, consider stopping to rest whenever you want.
