When you hear anything about the “benefits of walking”, you might be a little skeptical. Normally, anything that’s good for you either hurts, tastes bad, or takes too much time and effort. So how can something so easy, that you’ve been doing every day since you were a toddler, be good for you?
Almost daily, results of research and studies are published confirming the benefits of walking. And the research news gets even better. They increasingly show that you don’t have to walk until it feels like your feet will fall off to get all the benefits.
While it’s recommended that you walk for 30 minutes a day for at least 5 days a week, you can break that up into 10-minute walks a few times a day. And almost any amount of walking can make a difference in your health and wellbeing.
5 Health Benefits of Walking
- Help With Weight Management – Daily walking is linked to burning calories. Generally speaking, an average adult will burn 50 calories with 10 minutes of brisk walking. You’ll burn more by walking uphill or a little further each time.
- Promotes Lower Blood Sugar – This one depends on short walks instead of long ones. One study found that taking a 15-minute walk after breakfast, lunch and dinner lowered blood sugar levels more than 45 minutes of walking at other times of the day.
- Makes You Feel Better – Walking even has benefits for your mental health. Regular walking is linked to less anxiety, depression and bad moods. It can also just simply make you feel better about yourself, including a sense of accomplishment that can improve your self-esteem.
- Makes Your Heart stronger – Like the other muscles in your body, when your heart gets more active, it gets stronger. A 30-minutes a day, five days a week walking routine can reduce your risk of heart disease by almost 20%.
- Relieves Pain – If you don’t walk due to joint pain, you might be feeling the pain because you’re not walking enough. Even moderate-intensity walking helps to lubricate your joints, including your knees and hips and strengthens the muscles around your joints, so they get the support they need.
If you manage to get into a regular walking program, suddenly you’re just one step away from a healthy lifestyle and your best opportunity to lose weight. When you add healthy eating to the mix, like what you get from Herbal One Diet Plan, you’ll be in great shape.
If you found this post helpful, check out our recent article “4 Tips for Setting Goals to Lose Weight”.