According to the NHS ‘A brisk 10-minute daily walk has lots of health benefits and counts towards your recommended 150 minutes of weekly exercise’, therefore any walking is beneficial, if you don’t have the time in your day to fit in a full 30/60-minute walk, doing a quick and easy 10 minutes is still effective and very achievable.
Walking to improve our physical health
There are many reasons why walking daily is massively beneficial to our day–to–day life starting with weight loss, it’s proven walking 30 minutes a day helps reduce body fat, although walking may not be the most strenuous form of exercise, it is an effective way to get in shape and burn fat. While you cannot spot- reduce fat, walking can help reduce overall body fat (including belly fat), which, despite being the most dangerous type of fat, is also the easiest to lose!
As well as this walking 30 minutes daily can also help towards increasing cardio cardiovascular fitness, if you go at a brisk pace at least 3 miles per hour. This can also help strengthen our bones, walking at least three to five miles a week can help build your bone health.
Walking to improve our mental health
A daily exercise can help wonders with your mental health such as anxiety and depression, walking thirty minutes can help keep your anxiety at bay, just as chronic anxiety and stress release excess hormones that wreak havoc on your physical and mental well-being, exercise and walking, specifically release feel-good endorphins that serve as natural painkillers.
Not only this walking daily is great to help your, self–perception and self–esteem, as after exercise you, mainly tend to feel a lot more focused, alert and feel like you’re able to complete the tasks of your day more efficiently. A study found that walking was positively associated with better and improved sleep. The individuals who averaged the most steps during the month-long- study and who spent the most minutes being active reported significantly better sleep, on average than those who walked the least.
3 quick tips to prepare you for walking daily
- Make sure you have the correct footwear as this will help towards the ultimate comfort whilst getting, your daily steps in which will make you enjoy your daily walks a lot more, as you’re not going to feel good walking in uncomfortable shoes and could result in serious foot conditions such as Plantar Fasciitis.
- Be sure to warm up, starting out with a slow-paced walk then building up into a brisk walk won’t feel as hard when first starting to walk daily!
- Make a playlist of all your favorite songs, this will help you enjoy your walk that little bit extra and get you in a good mood! Not only does music pump up our mood it is also proven to help improve our workout speed (quicker calorie burn). This is because we synch our stride with the music’s tempo or BPM (beats per minute). The faster the BPM the quicker you will go, which will then lead to more calories burned! To improve, as well as this, make sure you’re using the correct technique, walk at a steady pace, swing your arms freely and stand as straight as you can.
