Six Health Benefits of Walking

Many people want to become healthier, but do not know where to start. Researching online can be overwhelming with the bombardment of opinions. It doesn’t take much to start improving your health. Read on to learn about six health benefits of walking.

1) Improve Your Circulatory System

When walking, your heart rate increases, thus moving more blood over a given period of time. More blood to the cells means a better transfer of oxygen in and carbon dioxide and wastes out. By strengthening your circulatory system, you reduce your risk of heart disease, along with lowering your blood pressure.

2) Lower Your Total Cholesterol Ratio

Walking also has another effect on your blood – it raises your good HDL while at the same time lowering your bad LDL cholesterol. A better cholesterol ratio means less chance of developing plaque that narrows your arteries and causes a stroke.

3) Improve Lung Capacity

When you walk, your lungs have to work harder to get air in and out. In the process, your lungs will not only gain capacity, but get more efficient. More capacity and better efficiency helps with carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange.

4) Manage Your Weight

As a form of exercise walking burns extra calories. A 15-minute walk after lunch at 3 mph will burn around 60-70 calories depending on your weight. While this doesn’t seem like much, it amounts to 300 calories provided you do it 5 days a week. Just think how many calories you can burn walking longer than 15 minutes.

5) Improve Mood

The benefits we talked about up to this point have all been physical, but walking also has a mental health benefit to it too. A daily walk can help relieve stress.

6) Boost Your Brain Power

With your blood flowing faster while walking, better oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange, and reduced stress, the brain functions better than it would if you had not walked. And the positive effects carry over for hours after you are done walking. This translates to you being able to get more done during your day with less stress.

It is not too hard to get started. Start slowly by walking around the block. Build up to longer walks to take greater advantage of these health benefits. Take all of the actionable steps you need to create the body and lifestyle you desire, and combine them with a persistent and confident mental focus. You may just find that the physical barriers of your past become the physical achievements of your future. Simply by getting out and going for a walk.