Many people believe that high-intensity workouts are the best way to achieve your fitness goals. But the truth is that good old walking can be a wonderful exercise. Even a quick walk around the block can be beneficial.
So if you enjoy recreational walks through scenic parks, you may be glad to learn that this exercise can change your body. This includes strengthening your heart and improving your mood.
This guide aims to explore some of the ways in which your body is altered by daily walks. So if you doubt that walking is beneficial, these 9 benefits are sure to change your mind!
What Happens To Your Body When You Walk Every Day?
1. Your Heart Gets Stronger
Regular walking sessions will increase your heart rate. Like a muscle, your heart will need to be strengthened and trained for your body to work more efficiently.
You don’t need to do loads of intense workout sessions to strengthen your heart. Instead, simply walking daily will strengthen it.
As a result, your heart will better perform its vital function if pumping blood around your body. Moreover, it will reduce your blood pressure. As a result, you will be less vulnerable to cardiovascular conditions.
Walking speed can even impact the healthiness of your heart. So if you wish to make your heart strong, you may want to go for a brisk walk now and then.
2. It’s Easier To Fall Asleep
Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? This is understandable since it is often difficult to take your mind off the stresses and strains of modern life.
By adding a walk to your daily routine, you may find it easier to fall asleep when it comes to bedtime.
This is because research has proven that people who go for daily walks tend to fall asleep quicker than those who don’t go for walks. Moreover, this sleep is often of a higher quality.
Part of the reason for this is that walking has been proven to reduce stress. Stress is one of the main reasons why people struggle to sleep, so it makes sense that walking would make it easier to drift off.
Moreover, this effect could be explained by the circadian rhythm. This is a set of mental and physical changes that affect people over 24 hours.
Through exercise, you can reset your circadian rhythm. This will mean that you are increasingly alert during the day but by bedtime, you will find it easier to fall asleep.
3. Your Mood Will Improve
Walking can make you happy! So if you go for daily walks, your mood will likely improve massively.
The reason for this is that your body releases endorphins. These natural chemicals will reduce stress and pain whilst also making you feel happier.
Not to mention, dopamine and serotonin will also be released by your nervous system during a walk.
Therefore, going for a simple walk can reduce depression and improve your mental health. So if you’ve been feeling down lately, we encourage you to go for daily walks.
4. Your Lungs Will Increase In Efficiency
A brisk walk can be considered a form of aerobic exercise. This type of exercise is beneficial for your heart and lungs.
This is because your lungs will be forced to work harder when you are exercising. As a result, regular exercise can strengthen your lungs. Walking can be seen as a workout for your lungs.
The more often you walk, the stronger your lungs are likely to become. This will be useful when you do more intense exercise.
5. Muscles Will Become Toned
Walking may not be the most effective exercise if you are looking to build muscular legs. This is because high-intensity exercises, such as back squats and deadlifts, will do a better job of this.
However, your leg muscles will nonetheless be strengthened by walking. Therefore, though you are unlikely to have massive leg muscles after walking, you may notice that they are becoming increasingly toned.
Walking is particularly beneficial for your hamstrings, calves, and glutes. These body parts are most likely to become toned through frequent walking.
6. Digestion Can Be Sped Up
When you go for a walk, you may also speed up your digestion of food. It has been found that walking reduces the time it takes for food to move from your stomach to your small intestine.
Here, digestive juices will break down the food that you’ve eaten.
These digestive benefits are particularly apparent when people go for a walk after they have eaten. If you suffer from mild digestive issues, daily walks could speed up this process.
7. You Will Burn Fat
One of the main reasons why walking is so popular is that it burns calories, thus helping people to lose weight.
Consequently, if your fitness goal is to lose weight but you don’t want to get involved with intense workouts, walking is an excellent exercise for you.
To help you burn even more fat, you may wish to walk up inclines or walk at a faster pace. This is because these conditions will cause you to burn more calories.
Even a 30-minute walk will allow you to burn between 100 and 180 calories. So to lose this number of calories every day, just go for a quick walk.
8. Energy Levels May Increase
You may assume that walks will reduce your energy. After all, you will have to use energy to do this exercise. But the truth is that regular walks can increase your energy levels.
As mentioned earlier, endorphins are released by your nervous system when you exercise. As a result, this will increase your attentiveness and your energy.
When feeling burnt out, doing some exercise, such as walking every day, can make you feel energised.
9. Your Eyesight Could Be Improved
It may sound a little odd to say that daily walks can make your eyesight better. After all, it’s not as though your legs and eyes are connected. So how will regularly walking enhance a person’s eyesight?
Thanks to research carried out by the Glaucoma Research Foundation, it has been found that walking can lessen one’s risk of developing glaucoma.
This is a condition that affects many people whereby the optic nerve is damaged, causing vision loss.
Even if you aren’t at risk of glaucoma, walking can be advantageous to your eyesight. So it may be worth taking daily walks to experience this benefit.
How Often Should You Go For a Walk?
It is recommended that people should aim to do roughly 150 minutes of exercise every week.
This can be entirely made up of walking sessions or it can also include other exercises, such as playing tennis or going to the gym.
Generally, going for a 30-minute walk roughly every day is a good way of experiencing the aforementioned benefits.
Of course, everyone has different fitness goals so this will adjust how frequently you should go for a walk.
Final Thoughts
Going for a nice walk through a local park is a great way of spending your time. Not to mention, you can seriously aid your mental and physical health by taking a simple walk.
So if the weather is nice, what’s stopping you from going for a sensational stroll?!
