Walking is a cardiovascular activity that could be considered one of the easy cardio exercise to perform daily. This may help you in maintaining your overall health.
The regular walking session could also provide you with several health benefits. Further, it may help in reducing the risk of developing conditions.
There are several types of walking such as bushwalking, trekking, hiking, etc. In this article, we have mentioned a few benefits that could help in maintaining your healthy lifestyle.
Benefits Of Walking
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Weight Loss
Physical activity like walking is involved in the increased movement in almost every part of the body. This enhanced performance may lead to burning a significant amount of calories.
Per this link[1], regular walking could also help in enhancing your weight loss. Brisk walking may help you tone your legs and could also play a significant role in reducing thigh fat.
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Improves Sleep
The regular walking session may stress your muscles. This could also help in enhancing your sleep schedule. These stressed muscles may get recovered[2] while you are asleep.
This study[3] suggests that sleep improvement may depend on gender as a moderator in physical activity.
Walking could also regulate the body’s temperature. As a result, your body’s core temperature gets reduced, which may help get you a sound[4] sleep.
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Improves Energy
A daily walking routine may help you improve your overall[5] energy. This could also increase the oxygen levels in the blood.
Vigorous aerobic activity may help to trigger hormones like endorphins. This could enhance your cardiovascular activity. It may further keep you energetic throughout the day.
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Improves Muscle Endurance
Aerobic exercises in walking, such as long and brisk walks, may help you maintain your endurance levels. Improved endurance may help you eliminate the pain caused during regular walking.
It could also improve your walking experience[6]. Further, you could maintain your pace of walking. It may also strengthen your bone health.
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Maintains Blood Sugar Levels
Exercises like walking may help in maintaining your blood sugar levels. This could also enhance the working of insulin in your body. This may reduce health[7] conditions such as Type-2 diabetes.
It may further help in maintaining your blood sugar levels. This could also increase your heartbeat and lead to enhanced breath. It may also encourage muscles to use more glucose as per the requirement.
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Maintains Your Mood
A few minutes of the walk may help reduce the stress-reducing hormone cortisol. This may help in maintaining your mood.
While walking, you may observe different colors around you. This could improve your attention capacity. It may further enhance your capacity.
Walking involves overall[8] body movements. These increased movements could trigger feel-good neurotransmitters. This may further elevate your mood, keeping you attentive throughout the day.
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Get Rid Of Joint Pain
Aerobic exercise may significantly affect people[9] with arthritis. This could also enhance your flexibility. It may further reduce your joint pain.
As discussed earlier, walking may enhance endurance. This could also strengthen your joints. It may provide support to joints. As a result, you could experience less fatigue throughout the day.
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Enhances Immune Response
One of the most straightforward physical exercises, walking, may help boost your immune function. This could enhance the process of combating foreign elements.
It may also improve[10] the oxygen supply throughout your body. This could elevate the healing process of the affected area in your body.
Brisk walking could also improve the production of white blood cells (WBCs) in your bloodstream. This could further help in fighting infections and diseases that may be fatal.
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Reduce Risk Of Breast Cancer
Physical activity like walking to get rid of breast cancer may be helpful. These cardiovascular exercises could help you by reducing the risk of breast cancer.
Walking regularly may enhance your heart rate. Further, it could improve[11] the oxygen levels in the blood. This may also increase sweat levels while performing an exercise.
These increased sweat could significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer and several other complications.
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Reduce The Risk Of Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia, a mental condition that affects memory and behavior. Walking regularly may help you maintain concentration[12] throughout the day.
It could also improve your physical health. This may also reduce the initial symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
This may also improve your ability to think quickly. In addition, It could[13] stabilize your cognitive function. This may also decline symptoms of dementia.
Conclusion
To conclude, walking may be one of the easy-to-perform cardio exercises that could enhance your overall body health.
This may also maintain your health and increase your energy. One step ahead of walking is running. If you feel that you cannot burn enough calories with the help of your walking routine, you can go ahead and start your running routine.
Along with this, when you are maintaining your diet while running could enhance the weight loss results. Again, this is because running and weight loss are related to each other in most cases.
Sources/References
Working4Health prefers using primary and verified references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and our primary references include peer-reviewed research, academic, and medical institution studies.
- Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight. Date of Publication: June 16, 2022. Available from,: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/physical_activity/index.html.
- M Dattilo, H K M Antunes, A Medeiros, et. al. Sleep and muscle recovery: endocrinological and molecular basis for a new and promising hypothesis. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Aug;77(2):220-2. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2011.04.017. Epub 2011 May 7. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21550729/.
- Alycia N. Sullivan Bisson, MA, Stephanie A. Robinson, Ph.D, and Margie E. Lachman, Ph.D. Walk to a Better Night of Sleep: Testing the Relationship Between Physical Activity and Sleep. Sleep Health. 2019 Oct; 5(5): 487–494. Published online 2019 Jul 26. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2019.06.003.
- Kazue Okamoto-Mizuno and Koh Mizuno. Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. J Physiol Anthropol. 2012; 31(1): 14. Published online 2012 May 31. doi: 10.1186/1880-6805-31-14.
- Walking for Exercise. Available from: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/walking/.
- Xiaorong Bai, Kim Geok Soh, Roxana Dev Omar Dev, et. al. Effect of Brisk Walking on Health-Related Physical Fitness Balance and Life Satisfaction Among the Elderly: A Systematic Review. Front Public Health. 2021; 9: 829367. Published online 2022 Jan 31. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.829367.
- Sheri R. Colberg, PHD, FACSM, Ronald J. Sigal, MD, MPH, FRCP, Bo Fernhall, PHD, FACSM, et. al. Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2010 Dec; 33(12): e147 e167. doi: 10.2337/dc10-9990.
- Ashish Sharma, M.D., Vishal Madaan, M.D., and Frederick D. Petty, M.D., Ph.D. Exercise for Mental Health. Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry. 2006; 8(2): 106. doi: 10.4088/pcc.v08n0208a
- Michelle Bruno, Susan Cummins, Lisha Gaudiano, et. al. Effectiveness of two Arthritis Foundation programs: Walk With Ease, and YOU Can Break the Pain Cycle. Clin Interv Aging. 2006 Sep; 1(3): 295–306. Published online 2006 Sep. doi: 10.2147/ciia.2006.1.3.295.
- David C Nieman, Dru A Henson, Melanie D Austin, et. al. Immune response to a 30-minute walk. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005 Jan;37(1):57-62. doi: 10.1249/01.mss.0000149808.38194.21. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15632669/.
- Physical Activity and Cancer. Date of Review: February 10, 2020. Available from: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/obesity/physical-activity-fact-sheet.
- Qing Meng, Muh-Shi Lin, and I-Shiang Tzeng. Relationship Between Exercise and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Narrative Literature Review. Front Neurosci. 2020; 14: 131. Published online 2020 Mar 26. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00131.
- J. Winchester, M.B. Dick, D. Gillen, et. al. Walking stabilizes cognitive functioning in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) across one year. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2013 Jan-Feb; 56(1): 96–103. Published online 2012 Sep 5. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2012.06.016.
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Louise Rodriguez is a full-time health and fitness writer. She considers herself a gym rat and takes pride in showing her biceps. She dedicates most of her time to her health. With the time left, she spreads information regarding health and fitness among the masses. Harry Potter is her first love.