01_ Is walking good for you?
Hello everyone! In today’s article, we’ll be talking about the amazing benefits of walking, some you never knew about before!
Many people look at walking as a very trivial thing, and sometimes they’ll think it’s just kind of a waste of time because they think about how much production or productive things they can do instead of just taking a walk for 45 minutes.
Well, reading this article will definitely change your mind. Because walking is probably one of the most therapeutic things you can do. Besides, even though it is the most common sport and most of us knows a thing or two about its benefits, still, the majority of these benefits I’m going to talk about will definitely surprise you as they are things that you probably have never heard before.
I mean we know walking helps you maybe lose some weight, maybe reduce stress, and so on.
But! How does it reduce those negative feelings and powers?!!! That is the question you are here to find the answer to.
02_ Walking Benefits!
01_ It Significantly Reduces Cortisol (Stress)!
Walking significantly reduces cortisol (stress) even after just a 20-minute walk. When you have high levels of cortisol your body is in this adapt mode, it’s adapting your physiology to your environment, to stress so walking turns off that mechanism so you’re less in this flutter fight sympathetic dominance mode in more in the parasympathetic. That’s why you feel calmer and why you feel less stressed, because now the body is not stuck in this uh stress reaction mode and with lower levels of cortisol and adrenaline you’re going to feel better even on DNA testing there’s a certain Gene that causes the person to hold on to Adrenaline longer okay and the remedy for that is to ,train, exercise, and flush it out knowing that not necessarily always high intensity but some low intensity long walks.
02_ It Increases Creative Thinking And Problem-Solving!
You’re going to have improved creativity and what I mean by that is more creative thinking think about this when you’re in stress mode and you have high levels of cortisol what is your level of creativity it’s pretty low it’s almost impossible to be creative when you’re under stress when you have high levels of cortisol and this definitely relates to problem solving as well because when you solve problems you need creativity and when you have stress you’re not really good at solving problems like you would if you were more calm and you had more creativity going on a long walk gives you this new space this ability to look at things a little bit easier it gives you space between you and the problem so the problem is not like all up here you have space now you can kind of look at it you can kind of play with it you can come up with solutions.
03_ It Affects Your Overall Mood (Decreases Depression And Anxiety)!
It is going to affect your overall mood you’re going to have less anxiety you’d be less depressed.
04_ It Enhances Mitochondria!
The mitochondrion in your cells is the energy factory, and most diseases are associated with damaged mitochondria, they call it a problem with your metabolism, and that is really related to how well that your cells are fed Fuel and you get oxygen and etc. so when you go on long walks you enhance the quality of mitochondria you enhance the numbers of mitochondria. Mitochondria become more efficient at burning fuel and the better your mitochondria work the less diseases you’ll have.
05_ It Increases Microbial Diversity!
Walking increases microbial diversity; you’ll have more diverse types of microbes that’s pretty wild which is going to help lot of things such as your immune system, your digestion, and your energy.
06_ It Improves Endogenous Antioxidants!
Walking improves or increases your endogenous antioxidants what does endogenous mean it means something from within in other words your body has the ability to create antioxidants and when you do walks you actually create more of your own antioxidants and this is nothing to do with what you’re eating your body’s just making more antioxidant networks which is going to help you fight off free radicals it’s going to actually help with longevity it’s going to help prevent a lot of problems.
07_ It Increases T-killer Cells!
Walking actually increases your natural killer cells these are part of the immune system and they actually kill cancer cells and viruses well walking increases the natural killer cells.
08_ It supports insulin sensitivity!
Walking improves insulin and glucose sensitivity so if you have insulin resistance if you have a problem with glucose walking improves this to the point where it can significantly decrease the resistance to insulin which is going to help your blood sugar so if you’re a diabetic or a pre-diabetic walking is awesome and even if you have the dawn phenomena where you wake up in the morning and your blood sugars are high going for a long walk can burn off that sugar and that’s what happens for the first I don’t know about 25-30 minutes is you burn off all this extra sugar you have and then you start burning fat.
09_ It Transfers Oxygen Into The Tissues!
Yes! It is true that when you walk you get more oxygen but it’s not about getting more oxygen in your blood it’s about what happens between your blood cells and your tissue cells are you absorbing more oxygen from that blood saturation, like even if you do an intense workout where you’re breathing heavily, you think you’re getting all this air but it’s kind of like having a cup that’s filled with water and then you try to add more water to it it’s already filled, it just kind of flows over that’s what happens when you exercise intensely when you’re over breathing you’re getting all this oxygen but it’s not being delivered into the tissues in fact you probably feel like you have to breathe harder to get more oxygen into the tissues.
Here’s the key it is true that you need oxygen right but to deliver and transport that oxygen CO2 is needed CO2 is not just a waste product it’s essential to make sure that oxygen is delivered in deep into the tissues so whereas certain type of height intensity exercise is good for certain things walking is good for getting oxygen deep into the cells because you’re not breathing too much you’re not flooding your body with too much oxygen you’re getting a nice balance of oxygen and CO2 which is the key to deliver that oxygen especially if you breathe through your nose, you’ll get like 20 more oxygen if you’re walking and for people that walk maybe a little bit faster they are generating lactic acid and that acid tends to inhibit oxygen, so what happens in your blood is you have certain things that are alkaline they’re called bicarbonates and that’s going to help neutralize dyslectic acid fairly quickly and then the byproduct chemistry of that is H2O water and carbon dioxide so your body actually is getting CO2 from that process as well.
10_ It Increases Bone Density!
It is medically proven that walking bone density increases.
11_ It Reduces Inflammation!
Walking reduces inflammation and stiffness because motion in general and getting this oxygen to the tissues is going to help reduce inflammation.
12_ It Enhances Your Vision!
Walking will do is enhance your vision and from several different ways. First of all you get more oxygen to your brain, and your retina is a part of your brain sticking out into your eyeball, Also, you’re going to improve insulin sensitivity which is going to help your eyes, your kidneys, and your nerves because it’s going to help blood sugars so this is why you should make walking a very important good habit in your life.
03_ Additional Readings!
Now just to balance this information, you should learn more about the importance of high-intensity interval training which we have discussed in one of our articles named the “Importance Of High Intensity Interval Training”. Check it out!
