I bet walking is not going to be part of your plans this weekend. Or any other weekend at all. I guess you already have a set routine for the weekend after a week of hard work at the office. I can wager another bet that the plans doesn’t include fun exercises with the family, or your partner. All you want to do is collapse on your favourite chair in front of the TV. And watch all those nice movies you’ve being saving for the weekend.
How about just taking out 30 minutes of your time and invigorating your body walking around the neighborhood. Come on, even if you can’t be bothered with some complete, low-impact indoor exercise, go outside for a bit, enjoy the scene and give your body a lift. Don’t doubt the efficacy of walking as a good form of exercise. Fact is, as you get older, walking might just be the only exercise you could possibly do.
Are you still skeptical about all the good this simple but effective exercise can do to your general well being? I could give you several dozen reasons why you should get your butt out of that chair and go out now. But since the aim is to get you started, lets keep it brief so you get on with it.
Walking Can Help You Fight Obesity
OK, we are not talking nice easy strolls here. To get weight-losing benefits of walking, we are talking fast walking here. If you are new to this form of exercise, you can start at a moderate pace. But with time, you have to increase the speed to a really fast walk. Make your body sweat out out all the toxins and bad fluids you’d consumed all week.
There are several scientific studies out their in the public domain showing that walking actually cuts the risk of getting obese by at least half. But if you are not prone to obesity, walking is great in helping you lose weight.
Helps Your Blood Pressure
If your are a fitness buff (or just someone with knowledge of things like this) you’d know that anything that helps in weight loss generally affects blood pressure in a positive way. A brisk walk daily helps to stabilize your blood pressure. As a matter of fact, just 10 minutes of it daily is enough for your blood pressure. But I’d advice you do at least 30 minutes daily while you still can.
It is Good for the Memory
Yeah, you read that right. A study as recently as two years ago highlighted the impact of brisk walking on memory. The study, carried out on people between 60 and 80 years, showed clearly that walking slows down the shrinking of the brain. The part of the brain most affected by this exercise is the hippocampus. It is directly responsible for memory. Walking regularly every week, apart from keeping the brain in top condition, can increase the size of the hippocampus by 2%. And if you know how the brain functions, you’d know a 2% increase is really significant.
Walk to Raise Your Immunity
A moderate but brisk walk of between 30 and 45 minutes daily would definitely increase the production of immune cells in your body over a period of time. To put it in another context, walking regularly as a form of exercise would cut down your chances of getting sick by almost 50%.
On the other hand, if perchance you got sick, your recovery rate would be boosted because of the high number of immune cells you got from walking.
Wow! I almost got carried away extolling the virtues of walking after I promised to keep it short. Okay, just so you know, walking is also good for curbing stress, cuts the risk of heart disease and if done properly, is a great help in managing type 2 diabetes.
Alright, get out and walk for the sake of your body and health.
