A Walk a Day Can Help You Stay in Shape
It’s not necessary to do strenuous exercise to stay in shape. A walk a day is enough to keep you healthy and to keep a good figure.
Plus, that’s without even mentioning psychological benefits that this practice also has.
Being sedentary has become a serious problem. The majority of people spend their days sitting. This has caused various health problems.
The most serious of them all is obesity, which also causes other issues.
Currently, cardiovascular problems are the greatest cause of death in the world.
- Luckily, it is been shown that physical exercise can easily reduce the probability of suffering an acute myocardium heart attack.
- On the other hand, those who stay seated all day increase their risk of suffering by two times.
Staying in shape
Staying in shape is directly dependent on your lifestyle. Exercising or not exercising is nothing more than a habit.
You don’t need a lot of money or a lot of time to work out. The only thing you need is awareness.
To stay in shape, the best things to do are light, constant and regular exercises. This means that it’s not recommended that you combine a sedentary lifestyle with very demanding workouts every once in a while. These changes would cause more harm than good.
What we do recommend is walking for 30 minutes a day. It is excellent therapy for staying in shape. Plus, it’s also been shown to help those with hypertension and diabetes. In addition, it even helps to prevent premature aging.
The Benefits of walking every day
This small, 30-minute walk brings numerous benefits. The first is that it strengthens your heart.
This activity helps the heart to pump blood more efficiently. The arteries dilate with exercise, and this helps to improve circulation. Your entire body benefits from it.
If your goals is to stay in shape, 30 minutes of walking a day is enough. If you want to lose weight, it will require a bit more time.
- Fats deposited int he body will start to burn after 20 or 25 minutes of physical activity.
- This means that to see changes in your figure, you will need about 45 minutes of walking a day.
Another benefit of walking is that it improves your mental health. The exercise in general helps to get rid of stress. It also works to improve your mood.
Also, the oxygenation in the brain is better and this efficiently increases cognitive functions.
Tips to start out
The first thing you have to do is make the decision to improve your quality of life and to be conscious of how important it is to be healthy both physically and mentally.
You should understand that walking daily will greatly improve your well-being.
After thinking about it, we recommend that you follow a few tips to incorporate into your walking routine:
- Pick a time for your daily walk. The best time is in the morning or later in the afternoon, never when the sun is at its peak.
- Ideally, you want to walk with a partner. This will motivate you more and make the workout more entertaining.
- Wear the right footwear. It should have a good cushioning system and have a design that gets rid of perspiration.
- Use adequate protection. If it’s sunny out, you should always put on sun screen. If it’s cold out, wear a jacket if necessary.
- Before starting your walk, you should stretch and warm up a little to avoid injury.
- The best thing to do is to divide your walk up into stages. Start out slowly, and little by little increase your speed. During the last five minutes you should return to a slower walk to cool your body down.
- After finishing your walk, it’s also a good idea to stretch in order to protect your muscles and bones.
- It’s recommended that you condition your body slowly. Start out with shorter walks and then increase the amount of time and the level of difficulty.
The speed of your daily walks should be a bit faster than your normal pace. If not, the cardiovascular benefits will not be as significant.
It’s important to maintain a daily rhythm, especially at the start. That way, your body and brain will become accustomed to the routine and it will turn into a habit.
