Step to it
Walk your way to better health one step at a time
Walking is an easy-breezy way to exercise, especially if you haven’t been as active this summer as you’d hoped to be. And it’s easy to get started — just head outside and go for a walk.
Walking can be done anytime and anywhere. You can do it while wearing your trusty old sneakers or high-end walking shoes. (Just make sure your shoes are supportive to keep your feet healthy.) You get to set your own pace, determine how far you want to go, and you don’t even have to get sweaty if you don’t want to.
As basic as it is, walking is incredibly beneficial for your health. According to the Mayo Clinic, the simple act of walking can help you:
- Maintain a healthy weight and lose fat
- Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer and Type 2 diabetes
- Improve cardiovascular fitness and increase energy levels
- Strengthen bones and muscles while improving muscle endurance
- Improve your mood, cognition, memory and sleep, while reducing stress
- Improve your balance and coordination
- Strengthen your immune system
And one of the fascinating things about walking is that once you start doing it regularly, you’re going to want to walk more frequently, more briskly and for longer distances. The faster and longer you go, the better your walk is for you.
A word of warning, though: Walking could lead to jogging, jogging could lead to running, and running could lead to something like — gasp! — a marathon. You could call walking a gateway exercise to better health.
