We all know that exercise is important, but what sort of exercise should we be doing to maintain our general health and fitness, and to avoid problems like back pain, and threats like diabetes?
All sources agree that some form of regular exercise is important, and this should include short spells of vigorous exercise to get the heart pumping and exercised too.
A great start for all of us is walking.
The Mayo Clinic advises: Walking is a gentle, low-impact cardio exercise that can ease you into a higher level of fitness and health. It’s safe and simple. And regular brisk walking can provide many of the benefits of more vigorous exercises, such as jogging.
These are some of the benefits they list: Manage your blood pressure; Reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes; Manage your weight; Reduce the risk of a heart attack; Manage stress and improve mood; Improve sleep; Slow mental decline and reduce the risk of dementia.
But be warned. A long ambling slow walk around the shopping centre, or around parkland, isn’t going to achieve as much as a brisk ten-minute walk.
A study reported in August 2020 in “Nature Medicine”, reviewed health of over 90,000 UK participants over 3 years, against the profile of their exercise, as measured by fitness trackers.
The findings were that intensity of exercise was particularly important, for example:
• Turning a 12-minute stroll into a seven-minute power walk every day decreases the chance of an early death by around 30 per cent.
• Adding an extra two minutes of brisk walking onto the end of 35 minute walk each day could lower your risk of an early death by around 21 per cent
Walking isn’t the only form of exercise, but it needs no equipment, and can be done anywhere, so what’s to lose by taking a brisk walk each day?
Link to my post on “Blood Pressure”
Link to my post on “Osteoporosis”
Link to my post on “Obesity”