Why go to the gym and spend a lot of money when you can actually be healthy just for free? Yes, you can stay fit without paying for expensive machines, without going to different venues, and without paying any membership fee to costly gyms.
If you’re wondering how then we’ll go to what made our ancestors survive the previous thousands of years. It’s simply by walking.
Why Walking?
Well, for starters, walking is the most typical exercise that won’t require you to exert a lot of effort. It doesn’t also cost you money, except of course if you want to walk around wearing your expensive running shoes. Moreover, it does not need a lot of tool and machines to help you out. It’s just walking, which is what you basically do every day.
We all know how this can be beneficial to everyone, but there are still some life-changing benefits that are worth pointing out, and they are the following:
Walking reduces your risk of coronary heart disease
You might be surprised to learn that 50% of all deaths in the United States are directly related to heart disease. It’s the single biggest killer out there!
The good news though is that regular physical activity, like walking, helps reduce your risk of developing heart disease. Additionally, it can help you recover from a heart attack or heart surgery and reduce your risk of suffering another heart attack.
Walking reduces high blood pressure
High blood pressure has been called the silent killer. When you have high blood pressure, your heart has to work harder to pump blood through your arteries. This causes it to enlarge which then puts you at risk for heart attacks, stroke, and heart failure.
When you walk at a heart-pumping pace, you actually increase blood flow so that your muscle cells get the oxygen that they need. This is why after exercise, your blood pressure will be a bit lower than when you started. This effect normally lasts for a while, too.
Additionally, walking and exercise help clear up the things that cause high blood pressure, thus reducing your blood pressure and helping you bring it down to more normal levels.
Walking improves your Blood Lipid Profile, a.k.a. Cholesterol
There are two types of cholesterol in your body: HDL (high-density lipoprotein) and LDL (low-density lipoprotein). They’re both needed to build and repair the walls of your cells. However, too much LDL, which is often called “bad” cholesterol, can raise your risk of heart disease and stroke.
In contrast, HDL is often called “good” cholesterol and is also used to help remove fats from your bloodstream. If you don’t have enough HDL, you end up with clogged arteries.
Luckily for you, walking and regular exercise help increase HDL and decrease LDL. Also, a healthy diet in combination with daily vigorous walking boosts the results. So it’s ideal to do this duo together.
Walking helps you lose weight and keep it off
Obesity is one of the biggest contributors to other diseases. It causes cancer, heart disease, diabetes and more. And let’s face it, extra weight just isn’t comfortable.
Our lives are too sedentary. We sit too much nowadays, but your body was meant to move. It has been for thousands of years so your DNA can’t cope with these changes. Thus, it makes you easily gain weight.
You don’t have to move in a superstar athletic, seemingly superhuman ways. You don’t have to do CrossFit, ride your bike across the country, or swim the English Channel to be fit.
You can walk like you were born to. Just casually go to nearby places and breathe some fresh air. As you walk, you’ll begin to modify your metabolism and you’ll burn more calories during the day, so keep on walking.
Walking reduces your risk of Type II diabetes
Walking helps you balance your blood sugar by getting your muscles burning the sugars. It increases the number of insulin receptors in your cells which in turn helps move the blood sugar into your cells rather than lingering in your blood and making your insulin resistant. And if you want to boost the effects, walk after eating. It helps to improve blood glucose control and burns more fat and calories.
There are so many benefits of walking as an exercise but what was stated above are what we believe is worth pointing out when it comes to our health. So, we hope it’ll drive you into starting your fitness walk journey now.
Walk faster, burn more. Walk longer, burn more. A lifelong walking for fitness program will help you lose weight and keep it off. So make sure you’ll sustain in keeping it off.