7 Surprising Health Benefits of Walking

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Walking is known to help you clear your head, pace your thoughts and calm you down. It can even melt your thighs and perk up your bum. The benefits of walking seem so obvious that they’ are rarely discussed. Long walks quickens your heartbeat, circulating more blood and oxygen to your muscles and your organs, including the brain.

It does not take a lot of physical strength and is probably the most natural of human exercise. In fact, we are blessed with a physique that almost begs to be used for this purpose. A 40-minute, two-mile walk will chip away half of those steps, and everyday activities can usually accumulate the other half.

Here’s why we should take those extra steps and make walking a part of your healthy lifestyle:

Moderately Lowers the Body Fat

Frequent walking will help anyone to lose some body fat. Some might say that walking is the easiest form of exercise. But that is not true at all. Walking requires a fairly fast speed and secondly, it can actually help you lose weight.

Tones up Legs, Bums and Tums

Regular walks offer a good shape to calves, quads and hamstrings while lifting your glutes (bum muscles) with a good. Add hill walking into the mix and it is even more effective. Paying attention to the posture will also help in toning your abs and waist.

Helps in Preventing Dementia

Older people who walk six miles or more each week are more likely to avoid brain shrinkage and aids in preserving memory as the years pass. Since dementia affects one in 14 people over 65 and one in six over 80, then walking is a pretty great idea to fight it.

Averts Diabetes

A new study suggests that brisk walking offers a significant risk reduction for developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is a predictor of this disease, even in people with normal glucose levels. But a recent British study found that people with a family history of the disease who walked briskly, or performed some other type of moderate to vigorous activity on a routine basis, improved insulin sensitivity.

Saves Money-Spending in Gym

A lot of people are considering to cut their gym memberships. A good alternative on gym visits and using gym equipment is walking, long and brisk. There’s always a place you can pound the pavement or trek a trail, and 150 minutes of moderate-intensity walking a week can help manage stress and prevent heart disease. Moderate walking equals an average of about 100 steps per minute.

Boosts Memory

A study showed that 40 minutes at a stretch three times a week could increase the volume of the hippo campus by two percent, which is fairly significant. Regular brisk walks can slow down the shrinking of the brain and the faltering mental skills that old age often bring.

Controls the Stress Eating Habit

Walking is one of the best ways to get away from stress eating habit. The best way to beat a stress eating disorder it to meditate, get good sleep and walk around 10,000 steps a day. Experts believe that stress eating is more often a symptom of an emotional or psychological problem. Walking releases endorphin into your system and reverses the cortisol levels in your body, helping you curb stress eating.

So, what are you waiting for? Make long walks a start of getting in good shape and health.


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