Walking For Better Health and Fitness

It may seem strange but walking is both beneficial to your physical well-being and mental health too. All humans are natural walkers from their birth it’s just there is an element of learning how to do it well. It is part of your biological design. An essential part of any walk is how you connect with both your body, and the physical environment around you. The synchronisation you feel is a massive fundamental part of how you can learn to relax.

Relaxation sometimes needs to be re-learnt

In your hectic lifestyle there may come a time when you forget what it is to be totally relaxed. But walking can offer you a way to rekindle this connectivity. Walking is really easy to do, it requires no training or assistance, and it is a way to get back to a rhythm of life that brings mental and physical resonance. When you walk, you walk in a rhythm. This rhythm is a constant reminder of how your body functions. The simple strides take on a metronome effect; you can feel your body awake from its unnatural slumber, as it propels you towards your chosen destination.

Breath and the importance of breathing properly when walking

To help you relax when you walk, you need to be aware of how breathing effects your overall relaxation. When you breathe deep your body becomes more focused as the oxygen supplies reach deeper into your lungs, in effect your heart rate will reduce. Yet as you walk your heart rate becomes stronger. This conflict helps your body become equal. Equilibrium is reached in that as you move forward your breathing is constant as if you were stationary.

After the walk - mental and physical well being

When you have finished your walk and showered you will fell fresher both mentally and physically. As you feel your muscles gently twinge, you will realise you are happy. Your body has moved from one point to another very satisfactorily. Your mind will be teeming with thoughts about how you should solve certain problems. Now you can fully realise your relaxed state of being.

It has been proven that walking not only relieves stress, but can help your body sleep well. The importance of this is that good sleep helps you function in a mentally stronger sense by becoming relaxed.

No more stress - how walking relieves pressure

By walking you will see your stresses become less focused and begin to take their natural position. What seemed life-dominating as you sat in an office now disappears into the insignificant sphere, while you begin to trace a path through a forest full of snow-drops and spring daffodils listening to the songs of a song-thrush. Walking will help you see a truer perspective of what is significant and what is not.

There are many elements of how walking can help relieve stress and make you more relaxed. Walking not only operates on a physical, but a mental sphere as well. Walking health benefits are really so available that they are often disregarded as a non-serious form of exercise. But often, what is the simplest and most thoughtless idea in life is the part that is the most overlooked.

While many people laugh at walking as being a non-exercise sport there are actually many surprising health-benefits to this form of physical activity. Walking allows the body to gently exercise, not only in a physical sense, but mentally too. Additional benefits include body strength, bone density, and relief from joint and back pain. Walking is also easily accessible as you have always been a professional walker since you were a child.

Increased Cardio Exercise

Walking as a part of your normal life can ensure your body gets an energetic cardiovascular workout. The prime objectives of a cardio workout, is to strengthen your lungs and heart.

Fat Burning Whilst Walking

When walking at a moderate to slow pace your body enters the fat-burning zone, thereby increasing weight loss. Even small walking distances can stimulate your body. It is not necessary to walk at Olympic speed. Fast speed is for cardio exercise.

Mental Health and Well Being

As well as the physical benefits, it is also worth remembering that walking can also increase mental fitness too. By creating positive energy from converting negative energy, a sense of mental well-being begins to exert itself in the walker. Often walking helps alleviate problems occurring in normal life, and allows a refreshed more rational perspective. The relief of stress is a massive benefit from such a simple exercise as walking.

One of the simplest and yet most beneficial exercises involves walking. It’s surprising considering walking remains not as physically demanding as swimming, the gym, or running. However walking offers a way to get fitter with the added bonus of helping you to lose weight. So how can you lose those additional pounds simply be walking?

Often the body needs a wake-up call. Life in modernity is both sedate by nature and not really physically demanding. A Simple brisk walk can help ease your body into the fat-burning zone and awake your physique from slumber. There are points you will need to remember that an efficient body is a hydrated body. Drinking water allows the body to metabolise fat. The liver metabolises fat while your kidneys extract the toxins from your body. Having the correct hydration levels while walking ensures your organs do their job well.

The Use of a Pedometer

Walking is seen as not-essential but really in everyday activities the body has already completed many steps. A simple pedometer will show you how many you conduct on a day-to-day basis. Walking a greater distance is all that is necessary to lose additional weight and feel healthier.

Everybody understands losing weight means more physical exercise as well as a controlled diet to some extent. By increased walking your body acquires an extra source of fat-burning exercise. Only minimal walking produces the necessary weight-loss because you’re increasing your physical exertion. Simple daily walks can produce the desired weight-loss. You don’t have to conduct an Olympic length walk to achieve weight-loss.

• Burn calories
• Save money
• Helps you to relax and improves mental strength
• Increases overall fitness
• May prevent serious illnesses
• Strengthens your body
• Builds cardio strength
• Lowers blood-pressure
• Helps you sleep (essential for allowing your body to repair itself)
• Speeds up metabolism
• Teaches you to breathe properly
• Helps you appreciate nature and the environment