Cardiac Rehab outline the benefits of walking
Walking is easy, can be fitted into our daily lives and needs no special skills or practice. Nearly everyone can attain the government recommendations for 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous exercise per week by walking.
Note the “moderate to vigorous” caveat. Strolling is not enough. Step out briskly to gain the health benefits – enough to become breathless – so that you can talk to but not sing to your companion(s)!
The role of exercise
Nowadays we can fall victim to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke, and various cancers, collectively known as non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These lead to ill health in later life and the threat of frailty, muscular weakness arising from a sedentary existence.
All these NCDs are not an inevitable result of ageing – they are caused or aggravated by a lack of exercise. They arise from our life-style choices – sitting about too much and moving about too little – and probably exacerbated by eating too much food and drinking too much alcohol. Conversely exercise increases both the length of our healthy life and total life span, helping us to retain mobility and independence in later life.
Why walk?
Most of us take to walking with the greatest ease and pleasure. Walking can be done at any intensity (speed) and most of us can do it as often as we like, and for long periods, if we please. It builds physical fitness, with benefits for aerobic endurance, lower body strength and balance. It can be a highly sociable activity and costs nothing except the occasional pair of shoes. What could be better?
Walking, particularly in greenspaces, can benefit the mind and spirit. It reduces the risk of depression, dissipates stress and helps to ward off dementia. As Juvenal put it: ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body.’
So get out there – walk for health. Many councils host ‘wellness walks’ and companionship may be found through walking groups. A recent analysis of the effects of joining a regular walking programme found that physical fitness was increased by a whopping 21% – enough to reduce the risk of most chronic diseases and quite enough to contribute to the management of such conditions.
