Movement, of course, is part of a healthy lifestyle. Things like iPhones and pedometers are a great way to gauge your activity level and see how much movement you are getting throughout the day. Health experts recommend that we all walk between 10,000 and 12,000 steps each day! That is a lot of steps and averages between 5-6 miles! Do you walk that much? I must admit that I usually do not. But, the weeks where I am making strides towards this goal, I notice that I am less bloated and have more energy. Why, you may ask. Well, it turns out that walking can to a lot more for our fitness than we may think.
1. Decreases Bloating
As said before, walking helps decrease bloating. Really, any workout will help reduce bloating when done along with proper water intake. Walking is a great way to get ride of that pesky bloat because almost anyone can do it with a reduced risk of injury. The side-to-side movement that walking creates in the torso region will also build up those abdominal muscles and increase your metabolic rate.
Oh, and did I mention that walking 10,000 steps per day will burn at least 750 calories!?!?! That is reason enough.
2. Maintains Healthy Blood Pressure
Walking 30-minutes a day can help lower high blood pressure and the bad cholesterol in the body. These 30-minute walks are a bit different than parking farther away from the store and hiking in because it is a large portion of time and one, concerted effort. Walking 30-minutes every day will, likewise, decrease your risk of heart disease and stroke since both can occur from high LDL (bad cholesterol) levels and high blood pressure.
3. Decreases Arthritis and Osteoparosis
This is music to any forward thinking lady or older woman! Yes, walking 10,000 steps per day will decrease osteoporosis and arthritis. How? Well, the light, weight bearing activity of walking increases bone density over time. Likewise, the movement will lubricate joints and help with healthy joint function.
4. Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a bit like the happiness vitamin since low vitamin D levels have direct links to depression. Unfortunately, 1/4 of our population has vitamin D deficiency. Walking outside 30-minutes per day can help increase vitamin D levels since vitamin D comes from the sun. Of course, your can also take a vitamin supplement for increased levels. I recommend, as always, an organic supplement from a trusted company. Gas station and most drug store brands will not cut it since the vitamins are not well absorbed into the body and have very few checks before leaving the lab where they are synthesized. We pay a lot for our good food, there is no reason to derail all that money and effort with bad vitamins that will do nothing for our health.
There, lecture over. Other positive effects of vitamin D including increased immunity, proper organ function, and calcium absorption since vitamin D is needed in that process.
5. Gain Energy
As odd as it sounds, walking will increase your energy levels. This is because the body takes in more oxygen when we are active. Oxygen helps with mental clarity, physical energy, and proper organ function. A brisk walk will increase oxygen levels without taking away to much energy from a cardio rich workout.
6. Works the Bum and Legs
That's right, working out is a low impact activity that will increase the muscles in the legs and bum. If you are really wanting to increase your leg musculature, try walking at an incline. Inclines are one of those secret weapons for a gravity defying derriere. And to make this even better, the more muscle we gain, the higher our metabolic rate will be. This means that walking 10,000 steps today could get you to those weight loss goals weeks from now!
7. Works the Core and Arms Too!!
Yes, walking is a cross form of motion that will work the abdominal while the arm movement will help increase arm strength. So really, walking can be used a an all over, moderate workout! This is a great way to warm-up before your workout, or, cool down after one!