Free exercise available to anyone at any time. It can be overlooked as a form of exercise but brisk walking can help build stamina, burn calories and make your heart healthier. As well as the physical benefits of walking, there are plenty of mental benefits also. These include, reducing stress (a risk factor of heart disease), reducing depression and improving mood. It does not have to be for hours at a time but however long you are walking briskly for counts towards your 150 minutes of moderate activity.
I find listening to music makes the walk more enjoyable and can sometimes take your mind off the effort you are exerting. I’m lucky enough to live close to the coastline so typically that’s where I often walk however you do not have to live or travel to the countryside or coast to walk. Towns and cities often have parks, woodlands or riverside paths which are just as nice and usually flatter.
Walking groups or walking with friends are a great place to start and can help with motivation, the social aspect can help take your mind off the walking and can help with mental health. There are a number of apps and websites which can help you plan walks, track how far your walking and how fast your walking.
If you are a gym bunny, walking on a treadmill is a good form of activity. You can track how long you have been walking, how far you have walked, the speed you are walking at and can even change the gradient to make it feel like you’re walking uphill. Some treadmills have the technology to track your heart rate, however this should only be used as a rough estimate and are not always accurate. If you have a fitbit or something similar these should be your first choice.
But overall walking is definitely in my top three exercise and I think it is massively underrated. A couple of walks a week combined with some workouts from the healthy hearts academy will easily help you achieve your 150 minutes of exercise each week.
