"The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise and of all the exercises WALKING is the best." - Thomas Jefferson
Why Walk
The effects of adding extra walking to your daily routine is more than just the physical. Walking makes you feel good too. Walking might not be a high intensity exercise but it has marvelous benefits.
Walking is an activity that is achievable for many people. It is a great 'first step' for inactive people to become more active.Walking allows your body to naturally release feel good brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. These brain chemicals give an emotional boost that can even help you get more active.
The Benefit List
The list of reasons to walk for exercise goes on and on. Ann green, M.S., past heptathlon world athlete, yoga teacher and fitness studio owner states, "Walking improves fitness, cardiac health, alleviates depression and fatigue, improves mood, creates less stress on joints and reduces pain, can prevent weight gain, reduce risk for cancer and chronic disease, improve endurance, circulation and posture, and on and on."
Study Results
A comparison of the results of the most recent National Runners’ Health Study with results of the National Walkers’ Health Study; researchers found that the energy used for moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease over the study’s six year period.
Studies have also shown that a daily walk can reduce the risk of stroke in both men and women, reduce the days spent in a hospital every year and can even lower your risk of death by up to 39 percent when compared with no leisure-time physical activity.
A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that those who stuck to a walking program showed significant improvements in blood pressure, slowing of resting heart rate, reduction of body fat and body weight, reduced cholesterol, improved depression scores with better quality of life and increased measures of endurance.
Mind and Body Booster
A Stanford University study found that walking increased creative output by an average of 60 percent. According to the study, “walking opens up the free flow of ideas, and it is a simple and robust solution to the goals of increasing creativity and increasing physical activity.”
The act of walking is also a proven mood booster. One study found that just 12 minutes of walking resulted in an increase in joviality, vigor, attentiveness and self-confidence versus the same time spent sitting.
Walking in nature was specifically found to reduce one's focus on negative experiences thus decreasing the risk of depression from negative emotions. Walking has also been shown to improve memory and prevent the deterioration of brain tissue as we age.
Did You Know?
An average city block is equivalent to 200 steps.
One mile is about 2,000 steps, or a 20-minute walk.
In your lifetime you will walk about 65,000 miles - that is 3 times around the earth.
The cost of operating a car for one year is about $5,170, the cost of operating a bicycle for a year is about $120.00 and the cost of walking is free.
The Journal of American Medical Association found that women who walk in their 30s and 40s can greatly reduce their risk of breast cancer.
Walking one mile a day burns 100 calories.
Walk 6,000 steps a day to improve your health, and 10,000 to lose weight.
A University of Tennessee in Knoxville study with pedometers revealed that women who averaged more than 10,000 steps a day had 40% less body fat and waist and hip measurements that were four to six inches narrower than those who averaged fewer than 6,000 steps.
Walking increases blood flow to the brain.
The Duke University Medical Center found that a brisk 30-minute walk or jog around a track three times a week was just as effective as antidepressant medication in relieving the symptoms of major depression in middle-aged and elderly people.
"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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