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10 Incredible Benefits Of Walking For 30 Minutes In a Day
Walking is the best way to begin exercising and benefits of walking are no less than other high impact workouts. Walking is simple, free, and one of the easiest ways to get more active, lose weight and become healthier.
Walking is one of the best ways to stay fit and maintain your overall health. To do it regularly can provide numerous benefits to your body and your mind. It can also reduce the risk of a number of fatal diseases like Heart diseases, diabetes, and breathing problems. Benefits of walking can be visible by regularly walking for mere 30 mins per day as well.
The best thing about choosing walking as part of your fitness plan is that it’s absolutely free, and you don’t need any special equipment. As opposed to risks associated with some more vigorous forms of exercises, walking is a low impact exercise, thus it’s the most risk-free exercise. Walking is also a great form of physical activity for people who are overweight, elderly, or who haven’t exercised in a long time.
Walking briskly can provide a number of benefits like build stamina, burn excess calories and make your heart healthier. Below we have listed some of the most common benefits of walking.
1. Benefits of walking:
1) Strengthens Heart:
Walking strengthens your heart muscles and improves the overall health of your heart. As per scientific researches, walking is the best exercise for sedentary individuals, especially adults, to reduce the risk of heart and cardiovascular diseases. In the study by American Geriatrics Society, above 65 years of age, who walk at least 4 hours every week, have the lower risk of heart-related problems.
2) Helps lose weight:
One of the biggest benefits of walking for obese people is that it is one of the greatest exercises to lose weight. Brisk Walking burn almost equal number of calories per KM, as compared to running. However, people who walk are likely to cover more distance thus are likely to burn overall more calories. Therefore, it might be a good idea to start walking and ditch your car for shorter distances.
3) Regulates Blood Pressure:
Walking can help control your blood pressure. As per a research conducted in Japan, 83 participants with mild hypertension, who were asked to walk 10,000 steps per day for 12 weeks, witnessed a significant drop in blood pressure and increased stamina. If 10,000 steps per day are too much for you, walk as much as your body allows every day to keep your blood pressure under control.
4) Improves Brain Function:
Benefits of walking are not only limited to the only body. It can have a major effect on the functioning of your brain cells. Walking improves blood circulation in the body thus improves blood supply to the brain with the adequate amounts of oxygen and glucose. This improves the health of the brain and helps it function better. It also decreases the levels of LDL cholesterol, which hinders arterial blood supply, thus also decreases the risk of stroke.
5) Reduces Risk of Diabetes:
Modern lifestyle, unhealthy diet, lack of physical movement are leading causes of the exponentially increased number of cases of diabetes. According to experts 3,000 to 7,500 steps a day can help you to control type 2 diabetes. Walking regularly can also control blood sugar levels, reducing the risk of 2 diabetes
6) Strengthens Bones:
There are some benefits of walking which will help you live your old age without pain and trouble. As you age, your bones tend to become weaker and brittle. Walking can help you to reverse the process and build stronger bones. Low-impact exercises like walking can prevent loss of bone density, thus reduce the chances of osteoporosis, fracture, and injury. Walking can also prevent arthritis and reduce the accompanying pain. As with your bones, you may also loose muscle strength with age. Walking can help you by strengthening and toning your muscles and preventing muscle loss. Regular walking can strengthen your leg and back muscles
7) Improves Digestion:
Poor digestion can be a cause of several gastric problems, like Constipation, Bloating, Piles, Fissures and even colon cancer, thus it is very important to keep the digestive system healthy. Benefits of walking are immense for your digestive system. Other than healthy food habits like high fiber diet, less use of refined flour, less oily and spicy food, you should also include walking in your daily routine to improve digestion. Walking after meals also aids digestion. A 15 mins walk after the meal can help you to digest your meal faster.
8) Boosts Immune Function:
Walking can also help you improve your body’s immunity against several diseases. Walking helps as a catalyst for activities of the immune cells, like the B-cells, T-cells, and the natural killer cells. It also helps in improving WBC count in blood thus increasing immunity and recover quickly against diseases
9) Delays Aging:
Who does not want to live young always? Delayed aging is also one of the key benefits of walking. According to a study at Harvard, people who walked minimum half an hour each day lived longer than those who were sedentary. Walking can help your body activate the telomerase enzyme (The enzyme responsible for maintaining DNA integrity), an important factor in aging. Walking can also help you to control or minimize the effect of age-related issues
10) Reduces Stress:
Improved emotional health is one of the major benefits of walking. Stress has a very negative effect on our bodies. Stress hinders the release of key neurotransmitters, nutrients, and minerals which leads to lethargy, cantankerousness, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and many other negative effects. Walking stimulates the nervous system receptors and decreases the production of the stress hormones. Also, walking helps body release Endorphins, which reduce pain and stress while creating sensations of pleasure and euphoria. Doing breathing exercises while walking can also reduce stress.
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2. Before you start:
To see all benefits of walking and not facing any problems while you walk, there are a few things which you should keep in mind.
- Shoes are very important for a good walk. Though you don’t need to buy any fancy costly shoes, you should still make sure your shoes comfortable, provide adequate support and don’t cause blisters.
- Clothes are not that important, still you should prefer wearing clothes in which you feel relaxed. Wearing clothes which don’t restrict your movement and allow air to pass will be a good idea.
- If you are going for a long walk or during summers, always carry a small water bottle to keep youself hydrated. If you sweat a lot, mix some salts and lemon juice in your water.
2.2. Are you walking well enough?
During a brisk walk, you should be able to cover about 5 KMs in an hour.
While brisk walking you should maintain a speed in which you can talk, but cannot sing, due to excess breathing required. However, if you find it difficult to maintain or achieve this speed due to some physical challenges, just walking will also do. Important thing is that you should witness improvement in your strength and speed each week.
2.3. Make Walking a Routine:
Walking should not be a work that you are doing. Instead, it should be a habit, an activity that you enjoy.
How to make walking a habit?
- Walking part of your journey to work
- Walking to the shops
- Using the stairs instead of the lift
- Not using cars for short journeys
- Going for the morning walk with friends or family
- Going for a stroll with family after dinner
Benefits of walking are numerous, however, everything comes back to one point; can you stick to your walking routine? If you can incorporate 30 mins of walk each day in your daily schedule, you will be surprised to see the changes walking can bring in your health and life. So get charged, be motivated and make it a daily habit to see all the benefits of walking in your own body and mind.
3. Disclaimer:
Above article is only for knowledge purpose. Please contact your healthcare provider before using any of above medicine or method. for any query or personal consultation according to your health condition, please contact your doctor.