Studies have now provided us, one more reason to get out of bed and go for a walk in the morning. A new study has been published in the Journal of Applied Biology which emphasized on why and how to maximize the benefits of walking. Read on to find out more and how you can make a change in your life.

Background

Some leading fitness gurus, always propose workoutsearly in the morning. This is the best time work out regularly and avoids any conflicts in your daily schedule. But, if you are one of those lazy birds, who even shudder with the thought of waking up early in the morning and hitting the gym; here’s another good reason for you to go for a morning walk.

Benefits of morning walks

Research has suggested that most of us live a stressful life, and are totally brain drained after a long working day. This in turn affects our workout routine. Moreover, exercising, especially when your mind is full of professional and family obligations can be more difficult, tiring and unsuccessful. Many of us don’t have the time as well as the interest in hitting those national gym chains.

Nevertheless, we always wonder how to maximize the benefits of walking to improve and maintain good health. People should note that walking especially in the morning is the best routine you can incorporate into your lifestyle, as it has multiple benefits. Studies have further ensured that regular walking before sunrise can enhance physical as well as the emotional well-being of a person.

Walking: A wonderful Form of Exercise

There are many theories revolving around exercise. An ideal exercise schedule should comprise of cardiovascular workouts, strength training and flexibility exercise. All these are said and done when you are able to do them. What if you are unable to make certain moves? What if you have pain during certain exercise?

There are many such cases, where people suffering from ailments like low back pain or other bone and joint problems find it difficult to follow the regular exercise format. While losing weight also needs to be focused on to reduce the painful symptoms, getting into strenuous exercises can be harmful for your health. Hence it is better for people with such complaints to consider regular walking as a form of exercise and slowly move on to other activities as the capacity increases.

For some people even walking might be painful or may worsen some symptoms. In such circumstances you can consider using the water therapy or aqua aerobics. In this, as the walking or aerobics is done in water, you do not feel the weight and can easily perform movements without experiencing pain.

Walking is the easiest form of exercise and you can vary your schedule too. If you are fit and walking fast does not hurt you can go for brisk walking and get some cardiovascular training as well. On the other hand if you have complaints like back pain or joints pains, you can consider low intensity walks and can alter the duration according to your condition. It is important that you wear comfortable walking shoes to avoid pressure on other parts of legs.

How to maximize the benefits of walking

Experts suggest that any distance and speed of walking is beneficial; however, have proposed certaintips to get the most out of walking.

Walk as much as possible:

A study conducted in this regard, by the University of Warwick confirmed that people who walk the most, especially in the morning, accumulating atleast 15,000 steps can have healthy body metabolic index, smaller waist, controlled blood sugar level and low blood pressure.

Pick up the pace:

If you really wish to know how to maximize the benefits of walking; you should go for a shorter walk with higher speed. A recent study evidently proved this hypothesis that in order to lower the BMI and waist size, it is really not necessary to count the number of steps, but how quickly you accomplish your goal is very important. Accordingly, experts suggest a minimum of 100 steps per minute workout to do while walking.

Break it up with easy intervals:

While proposing walking workouts for beginners, many experts suggest high-intensity interval training. This can be accomplished through taking alternate intervals between high-intensity workouts of 30 seconds to 1 minutes, the interval can be slower pace recovery period of 1 minute or so. A study in this regard confirmed that people who work on the protocol of high-intensity interval training avail maximum benefits of reduced waist size than people who walk with a steady pace.

Go uphill:

Walking up while climbing uphill, you will be able to achieve desired results within half of the time.  Studies have proven that walking with the inclination can be more successful in terms of burning more calories and training more muscles. It is also suggested that instead of choosing the straight path for walking, you should weave your way in between with obstacles like tree stumps or curbing around the benches, etc. to maximize the effect.

Concentrate on breathing:

Studies have identified the effect of mindfulness while walking on the weight loss. It is possible to release your mental as well as physical stress, as you walk by focusing on your breathing. Counting your inhalations and exhalations is the best way to pump maximum energy into your lungs, improve cardiac efficiency and passing on enough oxygen to your brain.

Add variations to your walking:

Walking in the same manner can make it a boring exercise. Add variations to make it more interesting. Do not walk in the same way days after days. Try brisk walking, extend the length of your walk or select an inclined level for walking.

Extend your walking sessions:

 

Experts advise minimum 3 sessions of 30 minutes physical workouts per week. Why stick to that? Extend your walking duration after every seven days if possible to maximize its benefits. Some day you may slow down no problem with that. But always aim for longer walking duration.