Stay young, stay green, stay clean – keep walking (Part 3 of 4)


Autumn happniess


Continuing with the last two posts, I am going in detail of the benefits that walking offers. It has to be said that there are many gadgets and tools that can help you evaluate your daily walking statistics and if you are really keen on monitoring the benefits, you should get some to keep a track of your daily walking activity.



  1. Complete gradual toning of muscles in the body!



The best thing about walking is that it is a full body exercise involving almost all the components in your body from the neck muscles down to your calves and feet muscle. Although, there are exercises like running and swimming that are more involving, walking steadily combines all the muscles without too much effort. While you are swimming, you may feel tired far more quickly as comparison to walking hence it is a great exercise to start the workout with.


Fitness experts often declare walking as the most complete exercise that is possible to undertake by all age groups. It takes care of the calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes and back muscles. If you are able to include uphill climb, the glutes are excessively exercised without over tiring them. A walk with proper posture includes abdominal muscles and shoulders as well making it the perfect rhythmic exercise that is extremely suitable for the body.


The biggest advantage about walking is that it is an endurance activity. Endurance activities help the muscles to gain strength without becoming bulky resulting in lower weight and stronger muscles. If you want to understand the difference, you can look at the comparison between long distance runners and sprint athletes. While sprint athletes require strong muscles to carry them to extreme speeds, distance runners possess less bulky muscles that make them carry less weight around but are super strong.



  1. Intrinsic benefits of walking – Soaking up free Vitamin D:



There are many natural vital minerals that the body requires but often finds difficult to get. Although, it is present in some diet forms as well, the most reliable and easy source to get Vitamin D is from the natural sunlight. Most of the people living in the modern world however, due to their busy routines get very little time to spend under the sun. Unless you are specifically having sunbathe on a day of good weather, soaking up sunlight has become a very difficult task for people of today.



The growing demands of the workplace have ensured that more and more people every year in the UK are having a vitamin D deficiency. This has led to decreased immunity and deteriorating bone and teeth health for many British citizens. While walking does not directly contribute to increase of Vitamin D in your body, it provides you an ample opportunity to spend some necessary time in the sun. A word of advice, before you plan to venture out in the sun, find the appropriate sun protection so that you can avoid the hazards of excessive sunlight (including sun burn and certain forms of skin cancer).







Photo credit: ” Ajnagraphy ” (János Csongor Kerekes) / Foter / CC BY-ND