WALK EVERY DAY TO IMPROVE CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
Power walking or trekking is the modernized version of a walk with rhythm, a perfect discipline to protect your cardiovascular health, that you can practice whatever your years are and that will also bring you psychological benefits such as mitigating tensions and stoking your creativity. Ideally, for it to be effective, you walk 10.000 steps a day –approximately 8 km–, as indicated by medical entities such as the American Heart Association.
Many people don’t know that walking is one of the best exercises we can do every day, as this simple routine can have many health benefits. A study found that 40% of adults walk for nothing and this figure is increasing as time goes on, as the development of technology has made work easier but less healthy.
In the beginning, no stress. It will depend on the pace of your stride, but on average, 10.000 steps can take between an hour and 90 minutes. If you are not used to exercising and just two laps around the block you lose your breath, it is almost certain that first proposing to devote so much time to the walk will take you almost certainly–to failure. Better than during the first and second week of practice your goal is to walk between 20 minutes and half an hour on alternate days. You can split those minutes during the day and take, for example, the journeys to work.
A step counter, your ally. Through the smartphone and with gadgets like a bracelet to measure the activity or a pedometer you can notice the walking distance you have traveled throughout the day. With applications like Runtastic, RunKeeper or Strava you can get the result of your advances in the practice of power walking and thus go controlling your progress in this challenge or, if, on the contrary, you are lacking physical activity.
Tasks that are compatible. While you’re on the phone with your mother, sharing a coffee with a friend for a walk, closing work arrangements with your mobile and going up and downstairs you can increase the number of kilometers you do daily. Detect any opportunity to get rid of the rest of the chair and sofa and so add steps to your day today
More intense activity. When you’ve been involved in the challenge for a week, you should be prepared to step up your strides. Walk like you’re in a hurry and try to do it for half an hour for at least 4 days a week.
Your family is involved. In addition to being good for you, walking outdoors and making an outing to the mountain is a perfect plan to enjoy as a couple or if you have children. Adopting habits such as hiking makes the little ones aware of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and, furthermore, it will be perhaps the greatest motivation for you: what better to activate you in the company of those you care about.
Paid walks, you know. Congratulate yourself for adopting this healthy habit, as well as for the physical improvements you will be experiencing, such as more physical resistance and less muscle pain, among others. Acknowledging everyday efforts will help you not only to strengthen your self-esteem but also to stand firm in the face of meeting this healthy challenge every day.
As harmful as smoking or following a diet rich in fats and sugar is sedentary life. This is indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO), which stresses that lack of physical activity is one of the main risk factors for health. The entity also dismantles myths: it emphasizes that exercising does not have to be expensive, can be done anywhere and at many times throughout the day, and points out that walking is enough to dedicate 30 minutes a day– it is the most practiced and recommended sport and it will not cost you one euro.
