The Truth About Walking Workouts
Walking as your main form of exercise is a hugely popular topic on the internet these days. Influences and content creators sing its praises and post video after video walking around showing off how fit they are.
Now, we’re not saying walking is not good exercise. It can be a great part of your fitness routine - but only a part. To truly stay healthy and meet your fitness goals, walking is the bare minimum activity you should be doing, and we’re going to tell you why.
Five Facts About Walking Workouts
Walking helps control blood sugar. Any type of physical activity helps regular blood sugar. Physical activity encourages your muscles to soak up the glucose in the blood, decreasing blood sugar in the short term and helping maintain safe, consistent levels in the long term. Walking after eating is particularly beneficial - just two minutes of walking after eating can effectively decrease blood sugar better than just standing or sitting.
You can walk every day. Walking is low impact and has a low injury risk. Walking every day only has benefits. Additionally the surgeon general recommends 150 minutes of activity per week. To meet this goal, you could walk for 30 minutes five days a week. The 30 minutes do not need to be consecutive - six five minute walks are just as good as one 30-minute walk.
Walking faster burns more calories. If you can’t or don’t want to maintain a brisk walk for your entire allotted exercise time, use intervals. You can do this by walking briskly for five minutes then taking a two minute break of slower walking. You can also use hills (or the incline setting on a treadmill) for part of your walk as an interval as well as the hill will increase intensity and raise your heart rate.
Walking has a positive impact on your mental health. Physical activity releases the happy hormones in the brain and helps improve your mood. Walking is not a cure for depression or anxiety, but it can help boost your mood if you’re having a rough day.
Walking outside is better than walking inside. Not only will getting outside give your mental health a boost, it also makes walking more challenging with mixed terrain, hills, and weather conditions.
A few weeks ago we talked about mindfulness during your workout, and walking without distractions like a podcast, music or a phone call, can be a great way to practice mindfulness.
The most important thing to remember is that walking alone is great but not enough. Strength training and flexibility training are crucial to maintaining overall health and wellness. But if you can’t make it to the Studio during your busy holiday weekend, at least make sure you take a walk.