Why You Should Walk More

Ready. Set. Go walk. 

Walking is one of the most historic forms of exercise. Most people do it everyday in some capacity, but the majority of us don’t do it enough.

With stay at home orders in place and fitness facilities closed, we are seeing steps counts plummet. Did you know that in the United States most people actually don’t get more than 5,000 steps a day? We generally just don’t have to… Think about it, we walk around our home, sit on the couch, sit at the table. Then we walk to the car, drive to work, walk to our desk and only get up when we need to use the restroom or eat.  Unless you intentionally exercise or walk more in the day, many of us physically do not need to walk more than 5,000 steps a day to accomplish our daily tasks. (If you walk around more for your job, that’s great!)

Now even that exercise opportunity has been taken away from you with quarantine. 

Or has it? 
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One thing that we all can still do is walk… Whether you walk outside and keep your distance (wear a mask if you prefer), walk on a treadmill if you have one, walk stairs in your home, or literally just walk laps around your house (yes, we’ve done it), it can still be done. Now is as important of a time as ever to walk more than you ever have before. Walking has many benefits, my favorite being the stress relief I feel from a nice outdoor walk. This has been the largest change in my routine since the start of being mostly homebound. Erin and I have gone for at least one walk almost every day. Usually they are anywhere from 30-60 minutes. To spice it up we try to take a slightly different route each time around the neighborhood. 

Check out this article to see many of the other benefits of regular walking. By the way, the recommendation isn’t just 10,000 steps a day.

Benefits of Walking

Want more of a challenge? Throw a backpack on and increase the load. You can get a great workout in by carrying some extra weight around while you walk. Don’t have any weights? How about some of those old textbooks laying around? Put them to use. 

Hope you have a great walk today!

Andrew