At the Reading Chiropractor we are strong believers in helping you to help in getting yourself better.
Advice is key in all that we do, and we often recommend walking as a great form of exercise. It helps by: maintaining mobility, keeping bones strong, joints mobile and improving cardiovascular fitness, losing weight by burning calories, maintaining tone. Walking is a simple, cheap and easy form of exercises which most of us can do.
We recommend you aim for 15-20 minute walks, 2-3 times a day.
Read more about this in this article printed in the Daily Mail. click here:
Why a walking workout is good for your body
by ROBINA DAM, Daily Mail
As a nation of largely sedentary workers, we take less and less exercise. Yet one of the most simple forms is also the most effective – walking.
There is now evidence to suggest that regular brisk walks could be as good for us, if not better, than strenuous jogging.
WHAT DOES WALKING DO TO YOUR BODY?
Regular walking, like most aerobic activities, is good for you because cardio-vascular exercise strengthens the heart and lungs, increasing overall fitness.
Together with diet and other exercise plans, it can also help with weight loss and tone up muscles.
Dr Craig Williams a sports science lecturer at the University of Exeter is a firm believer in the benefits of walking, and says: ‘It can improve muscle endurance as well as muscle strength, especially in the lower body.
‘It is good for bones and improves the body’s cardiovascular system. It also helps boost circulation.
‘Power-walking – keeping a brisk pace at moderate to high intensity – can burn the same amount of calories as jogging or running. So it is useful for helping with weight loss.’
And, he adds: ‘Because it is low impact, it does not have the same potential for injury as jogging. Yet it can offer all the benefits.’
Marcus Davis, an osteopath with the Harley Street Back Centre in London, agrees. He says: ‘Walking helps to drain the lower legs of excess fluid and can help prevent varicose veins through the pumping action of the calf muscles.
‘The increased supply of oxygen exercise promotes also gets rid of the waste products in the tissues.
‘And because more people are able to walk at a consistent speed than run, it is a more beneficial form of tissue-cleansing, particularly for the over-50s, for whom jogging can actually cause more problems.’
‘Walking is also better for the spine than running, as it puts less stress on the discs. Yet we were designed for constant movement, not sitting in cars or in front of computers, which causes negative pressures on our spinal cord.
‘Regular walking is excellent for spinal discs, which receive minerals and vitamins through the pumping action it causes.
‘And the best thing is that you can see results from walking reasonably quickly – although it depends on each person’s individual level of fitness, age and how often and fast they are walking.’
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU WALK?
Government health recommendations are for us to exercise for 30 minutes daily, for a minimum of five days a week. But you can split the walk into a couple of 15-minute journeys each day or make up for lost time with an extra-long walk at the weekend.
Getting off the bus earlier than you would normally, ‘walking up a flight of stairs instead of taking the lift or even a brisk walk around the block for ten minutes in your lunch break contributes to your daily walking.’
HOW TO KEEP IT UP
‘When you walk, just like any other form of exercise, your body has a chemical release of serotonin, the natural feel good chemical.
‘There is also the release of endorphins, which are happy hormones, which is why people feel on a natural high at the end of an exercise session. Remembering how you feel should be an incentive for you to keep it up.’
To read more about the benefits of walking, click here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-122898/Why-walking-workout-good-body.html
