Daily walking is one of the most effective ways to stay fit and active, yet many ignore it in favor of flashy forms of exercise. Walking can improve your physical and mental health, though, and is a free, accessible activity you can do practically anywhere.
Since walking is a low-impact and moderate-intensity exercise, it’s one that people of all ages and fitness levels can do. It requires no special skills, equipment or gym membership and can easily be integrated into most people’s routines.
Ideally you’ll be walking around solar noon, which is 12:30 to 1:30 PM for them during daylight savings time because of the time system error. Your walk at this time allows you to reap the additional benefits of UVB and near IR solar radiation.
It has been my pattern for the past ten years to walk barefoot on the beach for about 45 minutes to an hour and a half now. I’m probably able to do this more than 95% of the day. Although this is obviously not possible for many, I have seen many people move so that they can engage in this healthy exercise. However, the most benefit is achieved by running on a sunny afternoon. Barefoot on the beach is just the icing on the cake.
What can you get out of a daily walk?
Blue Zones are areas in the world where people live unusually long lives, including a large number of centenarians. This is showing that in areas including Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California, residents often engage in physical activity, including regular walking.1
“Regular physical activity, including walking, is a fundamental aspect of a healthy lifestyle and is associated with many health benefits, particularly in relation to healthy aging and longevity in the Blue Zones,” the researchers wrote in GeroScience.2
Their review found that walking is a powerful preventive intervention that can reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and cancer, reduce the risk of age-related diseases, while reducing pain. Relieves and improves function in muscle diseases.
Other benefits of walking include improved sleep and increased flexibility, but one of the most surprising of their findings was that simple walking can help reverse the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of aging.3
Regular exercise, including activities such as simple walking, can restore your mitochondria. Exercise encourages the creation of new mitochondria and helps existing ones work better, producing more energy. If you don’t take steps to protect your mitochondrial health, your mitochondria can deteriorate with age and produce less energy.4
This can contribute to muscle weakness, heart problems and less efficient blood flow to the brain, while damaged mitochondria can produce harmful byproducts, making these problems worse. “While in-depth studies investigating the effects of walking on mitochondrial function are limited, preliminary studies have shown the impact of walking interventions on mitochondrial function,” the scientist explained.5
One study found, for example, that regular low-intensity walking can significantly improve mitochondrial health in people with poor glucose tolerance.6 After the participants engaged in a four-month walking program, the researchers observed an increase in the expression of genes associated with mitochondria in their skeletal muscles.
These genes are involved in creating new mitochondria and increasing their function. Essentially, walking encourages the body to produce more and better functioning mitochondria in the muscles.7
Walking for mind and body
Like many forms of exercise, walking offers profound mind-body benefits. In its initiative to promote walking, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states, “A bout of moderate to vigorous physical activity can improve sleep, memory, and the ability to think and learn. It also Reduces anxiety symptoms.”8
There is, in fact, something therapeutic about a therapy that speaks to us on some level. Writing in the New Yorker, author Ferris Jaber noted:9,10
“What is it about travel, in particular, that makes it so easy to think about and write about?” The answer begins with changes in our chemistry. When we go for a walk, the heart pumps faster, circulating more blood and oxygen, not just to the heart. Muscles but to all organs – including the brain. Many experiments have shown that after or during exercise, even very little exercise, people perform better on tests of memory and concentration.
Regular walking also promotes new connections between brain cells, prevents the normal shrinkage of brain tissue that comes with age, increases the volume of the hippocampus (a region of the brain important for memory), and raises levels of molecules that stimulate both. The growth of new neurons and the transmission of messages between them.”
Walking outdoors, especially in the woods, may offer even more significant psychological benefits, including reductions in negative mood and depression, tension, anxiety, anger, fatigue and confusion, and increases in positive mood and energy.11
Meanwhile, Deborah Grayson Riegel, who teaches leadership communication at Duke University’s Foucault School of Business, wrote in the Harvard Business Review, “Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, William Wordsworth, and Aristotle were all obsessive walkers, using the rhythm of walking.” Helped to create them. thoughts And while any form of exercise has been shown to activate the brain, walking is also a proven creative force.12
She notes that she likes to walk with purpose, sometimes using walks for learning and productivity, including taking walking coaching calls or listening to podcasts, and other times to connect with others and find gratitude and perspective. Using:13
“On days when I need some perspective, I take a walk looking at the sun, trees, or water. These views remind me to contemplate the vastness of the universe, appreciate the beauty of nature, and inspire me. . Consider how much of the world there is still for me to explore (when it’s safe to do so).
… As someone who has experienced both chronic and acute back pain, I often walk with a focus on how lucky I feel to be able to walk – and the relief of being pain-free. I will focus on the gift of feeling safe (most of the time) as a woman walking alone. Or I have a clean, hot shower waiting for me at the end of my walk. Or I might focus on the gift of being alive now, when so many are dead.
Walking can be the sweet spot for exercise
While most Americans do not get enough exercise, it is also possible to eliminate it. In fact, too much vigorous exercise can backfire and actually harm your health instead of helping it. A landmark study that fundamentally changed my views on exercise was published by Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist with the Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Louis Hospital in Kansas City, and three colleagues.14
If you are sedentary and start exercising, you will experience a consistent reduction in mortality, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, coronary disease, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, falls and more. But people who are doing the highest amount of vigorous exercise start to lose the longevity benefits. If you’re doing a full-distance triathlon in your 40s and 50s, your risk of atrial fibrillation increases by 500% to 800%.
However, an important point is that in the case of moderate exercise – defined as exercise to the point where you have walked a short distance but can still carry on a conversation – there is clear evidence that More is better and more cannot be done. Perhaps even more surprisingly, moderate exercise, including walking, also improves all-cause survival than vigorous exercise — about twice as much, according to O’Keefe.
Other research has shown that even a modest amount of walking offers significant long-term benefits. In a study of 3,101 adults, those who took 8,000 or more steps just one or two days a week had a significantly lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death.
“Study results suggest that for adults who have difficulty exercising regularly, getting the recommended daily steps just two days a week may have meaningful health benefits,” the researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open.15
How many steps should you take in a day?
The average American walks about 3,800 steps a day, which is just short of 2 miles. That’s about 2,000 steps per mile, and every 1,000 steps you average per day reduces your mortality rate by 10% to 15%, O’Keefe notes. In our interview, he explained:
“There’s been more and more studies on this all the time, using activity trackers. We’re getting big data, like the UK Biobank, which is half a million people, and there’s a large subgroup of them that use activity trackers. and has now been followed for 10 years.
Obviously, more is better. You’ll get huge benefits from a sedentary lifestyle — 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day — up to 7,000 or 8,000. [Here] You have a much lower mortality rate, an improvement in survival. That’s about 12,000 steps a day. Most studies show that it plateaus at 12,000.”
I recommend tracking your steps using a fitness tracker like the Overa Ring. Many cell phones also have free activity trackers, so you can take your phone with you on a chat. It’s not ideal due to the emission of electromagnetic fields (EMFs), but you can put it in airplane mode or, better yet, in a Faraday bag.
Ideas for changing your walking routine
If you’re a seasoned walker and want to add some variety to your walking routine, Nordic walking, sometimes referred to as Nordic walking, is one way to do it. It involves running along fixed-length ski poles using a motion similar to cross-country skiing but without snow.
Nordic walking originated in Finland, where it is commonly used by cross-country skiers for training during the off-season.16 While normal walking or running activates 40 percent of your muscles, Nordic walking uses 90 percent of your muscles, providing a lower and upper body workout in one. It requires 18% to 25% more oxygen consumption compared to walking without poles at the same speed.17
Nordic walking may be an ideal form of exercise for people with heart disease because it increases functional capacity – or the ability to perform activities related to daily living – compared to other forms of exercise, including high-intensity exercise. Interval training (HIIT) and moderate to vigorous intensity continuous training (MICT).18
Like regular walking, Nordic walking is low impact, making it suitable for people of all fitness levels. For example, in a systematic review, Nordic walking programs have been found to be an effective model for weight loss in overweight and obese patients, with additional benefits for cardiovascular risk factors.19 The use of poles also makes Nordic walking attractive for those with mobility disabilities, including Parkinson’s disease.
Walking backwards is another challenge you can try, in a safe, obstacle-free setting, of course. In a study published in the journal Cognition, researchers from the University of Roehampton (UR) in London found that walking backwards can also boost your memory.20
Plus, it puts less pressure and requires less range of motion from your knee joints, making it ideal for those with knee problems or injuries. Also, because walking backwards eliminates the normal heel strike on the ground, it can lead to changes in the alignment of the pelvis that can potentially reduce the stress associated with low back pain.21
The bottom line is, make it a point to set aside time for regular walking in your routine. It’s an easy, accessible way to significantly improve your overall health and well-being.
