Walking for Exercise Provides a Lifetime of Strength

This is an important discovery about walking for exercise, as it is something that is accessible to most people and opens the door not only to better overall wellness and weight control, but also an opportunity to keep ourselves strong into the later years of our lives.

Strength is an important factor as we age, as muscle mass starts to reduce after a certain point in our adulthood. As a result, we lose overall mass, are less able to do things we used to do easily, and we find ourselves at a greater risk of injury. By keeping ourselves strong and slowing down that loss of muscle mass, it helps to ensure greater ease of everyday activities while preventing injury at the same time.

Not to Be Underestimated

Walking for exercise is often underestimated because of how simple and straightforward it seems. It is something nearly everyone can do and doesn’t require any special equipment except for a good pair of shoes. It can be adapted to essentially any fitness level. As a result, it seems like it’s something that can be shrugged of as less beneficial than other types of exercise that are done with weights or gym machines.

That said, walking for exercise provides an excellent cardiovascular workout. It helps to tone and strengthen the entire body, particularly the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Furthermore, if you keep good posture, it can also give your core muscles a bit of an additional workout. By swinging your arms, you enjoy a touch of activity for your upper body as well. Simply adding weights can build up that result quite substantially.

In this way, while it’s not strength training, walking for exercise can help to keep you stronger in meaningful ways that will help you as you age. The earlier you start, the easier it is to make a regular habit out of it. That said, it is never considered to be too late to build this activity into your lifestyle so that its benefits can be regularly enjoyed.