How Walking Can Improve Your Health
When it comes to exercise, walking is a great low impact workout that the vast majority of people can do. It needs no special equipment, there are no expensive monthly gym fees to pay and you can work it into your daily schedule whenever it’s good for you. If you look at the potential health benefits of walking you might be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at an advert for some new wonder drug – but they are very real and easily obtainable with no more than a few minor changes to your daily routine.
Many health and medical advisers suggest that 10,000 steps a day are all that is required in order to obtain the significant health benefits on offer. That’s approximately four and a half to five miles for the average person. It sounds like a fair old distance – but it’s very much easier to achieve than you would think. Bearing in mind all the potential health benefits, it’s worthwhile making the effort to walk just a little further each day.
Modern living can be somewhat sedentary – so many people will, in the absence of remedial action, fall short of the recommended 10,000 steps a day target. In order to find out what your daily average step count is, you might want to consider getting yourself a pedometer. These can be picked up for just a few dollars nowadays, and a pedometer will not only tell you how many steps you take but how many calories you burn and the distance you cover.
Once you’ve established exactly how many steps you average per day, you should look for ways to make up any difference between your daily average and the 10,000 step target. There are many different ways to do this – but be sensible and build up gradually – don’t try to do everything all at once.
If you can set aside time each day for a dedicated walk then that’s great. However, if that’s not a practical proposition for you then there are plenty of ways to fit walking into your day. Go for a ten or fifteen minute walk during your lunch break. Leave the car at home and walk to work, or get off the bus a couple of stops early and complete your journey on foot.
Make the most of modern technology by walking and talking when you’re on your mobile phone. A fifteen minute telephone call can give you the opportunity to get in somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 extra steps. There are many other opportunities to get your step count up – and they soon mount up.
If you’re over forty, if you have any medical conditions, or if you just haven’t exercised for some time, then it would be a good idea to seek the opinion and advice of your doctor before you start any new fitness regime. However, walking is a low impact, low injury risk workout which will, as long as you exercise a little common sense, deliver significant health benefits. Before you know it, you will be feeling better, enjoying higher energy levels and shedding pounds.
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