The Benefits of Walking Everyday

You don't have to run marathons and be on a strict diet to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Simply adding walking to your daily routine can reap massive benefits to your health.

One of the most common misconceptions about health and wellness is that you need to eat perfectly assembled meals and be an avid runner to be considered “healthy”. However, the truth time and again is moderation is the best way to go. Yes, you want to mostly eat healthy, and yes you should also incorporate some intense workouts to challenge yourself and push your limits a bit, but don’t discount the value of something as simple as walking everyday to your health.

Comparing walking to running is like comparing apples to oranges—they both are good for you, but very different. Running is more intense and activates more muscles to be sure, but walking when done correctly can also help you with any health goals you may have. In fact, there are some cases (if you are overweight or just starting into working out) where walking may actually be a better exercise option at least to start out. Walking is also a great option if you are looking for something to help supplement or switch up what you do everyday.

Some of the most notable physical benefits of walking include:

· Improved fitness

· Better cardiac health

· Less joint pain

· Helps prevent weight gain

· Improves endurance

· Helps reduce cancer/chronic disease risks

· Gets your circulation going

· Can snap your posture in place

Improved physical wellness isn’t the only arena walking consistently helps. Better mental health is also possible when you add walking into your exercise routine by:

· Increasing creative output

· Alleviating depression and improves your mood

· Keeping fatigue at bay

· Memory improvement

If we have sold you on walking and you want to give it a try, we have a few ideas to help get you started.

First, make sure you are in a place to be mindful about what you are doing. Simply walking on the treadmill with no thought about the activity won’t get you the results you desire. If you are doing your walking workout on the treadmill try different settings that will change the speed and incline you are walking with for better physical exertion. The more you can raise and lower your heartrate through out your workout, the more you will ultimately get from it.

Other elements you can add to your walking workout to provide different challenges are ankle and/or hand weights, walking styles (lunge, grapevine, etc) and of course even your music selection can help dictate the intensity at which you get after your workout.

Of course walking outside is also a good option that has the added benefit of helping with your mental health too.