5 Benefits of Walking for Fitness

4 minutes

Last update: 04 May, 2020

These days, the importance of physical fitness for our health is obvious. Walking for fitness is one of the keys to our well-being – both physically and emotionally. Even so, for many people, signing up at a gym or starting to play some sport requires a lot of time and effort.

For someone seeing an activity with these characteristics, walking for fitness can be one of the best alternatives. Due to its many benefits, this simple type of physical exercise is a very efficient way to improve your health and well-being. In our article for today, you will learn why walking for fitness can become your greatest ally.

What are the benefits of walking for fitness?

Even though walking for fitness doesn’t get as much publicity as other types of exercise, the reality is that it’s a very good option for giving the body a bit of energy. Maybe lifting weights isn’t for you, and you’ve had enough of yoga… But if you would like to incorporate the benefits of exercise in your life, then you would be interested in seeing how just walking around can help you.

1- It’s easy to do

One of the greatest benefits of walking is how easy it is to exercise in this way. Since you don’t need any sort of specialized equipment in order to do it, a lack of funds is no obstacle. On the other hand, because you can walk anytime during our daily routine, it’s also a great exercise for busy people.

These aspects are what makes it very easy to make walking into a healthy habit. With this as a foundation, it’s much more likely that you start to like exercising itself. Additionally, when you see that you’re in better shape, you’re motivated to try other types of these activities.

2- It helps you burn fat

Most people associate weight-loss with exercise that requires a lot of work and a high heart-rate, such as running, swimming, or bicycling. Nevertheless, some studies say walking can be much more effective in burning fat than other more intense types of exercise.

One of the main reasons for this is that, despite the fact that walking doesn’t consume as many calories as other types of exercise, it makes you less hungry. A key benefit of walking is that it lets you lose fat without your body expecting you to replace it later.

3- It’s good for the heart

Taking care of your cardiovascular health is fundamental for enjoying a long life without problems. In modern societies, most early deaths are caused by heart diseases. Because of that, you have to do everything you can to take care of this oh-so-important organ.

The latest research seems to indicate that one of the principle benefits of walking is that it reduces blood pressure and triglycerides. In this sense, the evidence points to it being more effective at doing this than other exercises, such as jogging or weight-lifting.

4- It’s even perfect for people who aren’t in the best shape

We all know that taking care of ourselves is essential to feel better emotionally. Nevertheless, we sometimes lose our way. Our health deteriorates to the point that starting to exercise again to fix the situation can be complicated.

If you have a problem that doesn’t allow you to play a more intense sport (such as being very overweight or having pain in the joints), walking can give you all of the benefits of exercise. Plus it’s in an easy way and with little impact on the joints.

5- Reduces inflammation

By now you surely know that physical health has a direct impact on your psychological health. Even so, many people still don’t know about one of the worst enemies of happiness: physical inflammation.

Inflammation is a physical state brought about when we constantly come into contact with things our body considers dangerous. For example, alcohol, tobacco, or certain types of food can make your body go into a state of inflammation.

The primary problem of this phenomenon is that it’s closely related to depression and unhappiness. It is considered to be one of the principal causes of the epidemic of emotional dissatisfaction in the western world. And it’s closely related to inflammation.

Luckily, one of the most important benefits of walking for fitness is that it helps to reduce this problem significantly. This, together with all of the previous ones, makes walking one of our greatest allies in the quest for happiness.