Creating a fitness regimen that suits your needs seems hard, especially when you have to build it around a busy schedule. But it might not be as difficult as you think.
You can achieve your fitness goals by doing something simple: walking. That’s right; brisk walking for 30 minutes a day has myriad health benefits, including improving physical fitness and mental health.
Aside from helping you maintain a healthy weight and trim off extra fat, walking daily for 30 minutes increases heart and lung fitness, reduces risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, manages preexisting conditions, and reduces cancer risk.
It also strengthens bones and muscles and can improve your mood. According to Dr. Michael Baria, a sports medicine physician at The Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, those aren’t the most important health benefits.
“We know that – going from a sedentary baseline – for every 5-10 minutes that you’re active across the week, there’s a significant reduction in all causes of mortality,” says Baria.
Heart Health
Brisk walking has a profound impact on heart health, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, coronary heart disease and nonfatal myocardial infarction.
A 1999 study in the New England Journal of Medicine followed the walking habits of more than 72,000 nurses ages 40-60 years old for eight years and found that brisk walking for at least 30 minutes almost every day reduced the risk of coronary events by 30-40 percent.
The study also says that increasing the intensity of the walk can reduce your risk even more.
“Instead of just maybe going for a stroll, actually increase the pace that you’re walking at, or if you’ve been on flat terrain for the whole time, maybe start building in some gentle inclines,” he says.
And don’t forget, brisk walking gets the blood pumping, improving circulation and lowering blood pressure and heart rate.
Bone and Joint Health
Any moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can improve your bone and joint health, but walking daily can make the otherwise daunting task of exercising much easier.
“It’s a fairly low-impact activity, and you can still get good cardiovascular and a little bit of muscle endurance work out of it without having tremendous loads through the joints,” says Baria.
While it doesn’t make a difference if you walk outside or on a treadmill at the gym, Baria says that tracks and natural surfaces are more forgiving on joints because they’re softer on impact.
Baria says walking even provides some protection against osteoporosis in older women because it helps build up bone density. But as it doesn’t fully involve the upper body, he recommends doing some resistance training to target the bones up top.
Why 30 Minutes?
In the 2nd edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommends that adults get 150-300 minutes of moderate physical activity every week in order to maximize their health benefits.
While you reap more benefits approaching the 300-minute mark, starting with a 30-minute walk each day works just as well. It doesn’t matter how you achieve that 30 minutes. If you’re pressed for time, experience pain or just not in the mood, you can split your walk into five-minute bursts and still improve your health.
No matter what’s motivating you to get active, walking 30 minutes a day is a great way to start. So what are you waiting for? Get to steppin’!
Tatyana Tandanpolie is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
