This is How You Can Change Your Body by Walking Just 15 Minutes a Day
The impact of simple act of walking on adults over the age of 65 had a remarkable effect over the course of the 12-year study, regular walking for just 15 minutes a day reduced the mortality rate by 22%. The rate was even higher when activity levels were longer and more frequent.
The lead researcher states: “ Age is not an excuse not to exercise. It is well established that regular physical activity has a general health-improving effect for any medical treatment. However, less than half of older adults reach the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise each week. ”
This finding should not come as a surprise
Because it is so basic to us, the act of walking has been extensively studied for its effects on various aspects of the human condition.
Some people don’t see walking as an aerobic exercise and thus ignore its benefits. The definition of “aerobic” exercise is one that stimulates your heart and breathing rates to pump more oxygen to your muscles. Even a slow ride does that. The faster you walk, the more aerobic activity you generate.
Increased cardiovascular, respiratory, and circulatory operations mean that nutrients will need to go where they need to go to support the exercise. The energy is used instead of stored, and your organs, muscles, and bones get more robust. Our bodies are designed for movement.
There is no question that a sedentary lifestyle that omits proper exercise leads to disease. Routinely low levels of physical activity have given rise to what is called ” sedentary death syndrome “. This is a genuine condition that has been considered “ a significant public health burden because it causes multiple chronic diseases and millions of premature deaths each year. ” ( 2 )
If you don’t use it, you lose it; this goes for everything from muscle strength to cognition.
For all social classes
A 2016 study found that increasing the amount of walking in obese children up to 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week increased their lung capacity in just 6 weeks. Also, interval training isn’t just for high-impact aerobics. If brisk walking is interspersed with slow walking it improves your fitness level more effectively than walking at a steady pace.
Walking outdoors has a particularly favorable effect on mental health. The natural setting (away from electronics and other distractions) improves mood, lowers stress, and lessens feelings of depression.
The sun feeds us with the essential vitamin D, and deficiency of this vitamin is becoming almost an epidemic in the industrial world. Although walking indoors is almost as good; a Stanford University study found that walking on a treadmill in front of a blank wall resulted in nearly as many creative responses as walking outside. Whether inside or outside, walking significantly outperforms sitting on measures of mental activity.
Like a walk in the park
When something hurts, we don’t want to touch it. The paradox is that regular walking improves mobility and reduces the risk of injury. Any walking exercise, including weight-bearing exercise, strengthens bones and connective tissue and increases blood and nutrient supply. The Arthritis Foundation recommends walking for these reasons and more. “ If you don’t walk, your joints are deprived of life-giving fluid, which can accelerate deterioration .”
The American Heart Association advocates walking for a lower risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, and diabetes. A minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity per day up to at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week is recommended to realize the protective effects of exercise.
Exercise (walking is the most basic) doesn’t have to be done all at once: two 15-minute walks are as good as one 30-minute walk. You can start slowly and work up to improving your pace and endurance.
And that’s not all the benefits of walking: trouble sleeping? of a walk
The Sleep Foundation reviewed a study and found that: “. .. a session of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (for example, walking) reduced the time it took to fall asleep and increased the duration of sleep in people with chronic insomnia compared to a night of no exercise. ”
That’s a very impressive result after just one ride.
The obvious
A meta-analysis of walking studies from 7 countries, with a median duration of 11 years, found that regular walking decreased the incidence of cardiovascular events by 31% and decreased the risk of mortality by 32%. Walking around 8 kilometers a week at 3 km/h will protect you from the most serious diseases.
Not everyone can work out in a gym, but most of us can walk. So it’s worth taking a daily walk to get all the benefits of walking mentioned above. All you need to do is have a decent pair of shoes and 15 minutes a day. Who doesn’t have time for that?