You Need to Go Outside Every Day
At a time when our fitness options are limited, don’t discount the benefits of walking. The walk is free. No fancy gear or special knowledge is required to walk. Walking is one of the basic movements, one of the first things we learn to do when we are young.
Walking can also protect us. It helps keep our body and mind healthy, giving us time and space to slow down and take a look at the world around us.
As Anthony Boych , author of The Walking Life: Taking Back Our Health and Freedom Step by Step , noted in a recent essay , “Walking helps us remember what it’s like to be completely alive.”
Walking is good for your health
Although you may not think of it as exercise, walking has a number of advantages for the health . Research shows that regular walking reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke and protects against dementia. You also don’t need to do regular strength walking to realize these benefits: they are obvious if you walk as little as 5 ½ miles a week, or about 1,800 steps a day) and do not require brisk walking. step. Walking at 2 miles per hour is fine and you don’t need to walk the entire walk at the same time; a little here and there can add up to a decent amount by the end of the day and you will still see some positive results. Walking also reduces the strain on the person, which means that the risk of injury is much lower.
The more regularly you walk, the more benefit you will get.
Walking is linked to better mental health
As Malchik pointed out in an email to Lifehacker, many studies have linked moderate, regular exercise – and in particular walking – with improved mental health, including a reduction in anxiety and depression . This advantage is especially enhanced when people are walking in green spaces, be it a park, forest, or even a small corner of nature in the city.
“When I start to feel the approach of a depressive episode, if I force myself to take even very short walks, it prevents depression from taking hold in my entire brain and body,” says Boy. “It’s not medicine and it doesn’t make me cheerful and happy, but it does help keep me cool.”
Walking promotes mindfulness
In addition to being active, walking also gives you an easy way to slow down and get to know the world around you.
“We understand, interpret and even define the world through our experience as embodied beings, that is, through our bodies and how they interact with the world around us,” says Boy. “Walking is a way to discover it.”
When things get unbearable, as is often the case these days, putting on comfortable shoes and taking a short walk – while maintaining proper physical distance, of course – can help calm a chaotic world a bit.