What Are the Good Effects of Walking?

01Many medical experts say that walking is an easy way to improve physical and mental health, support fitness, and prevent disease.

02They advise that walking is a great first step toward a healthy life, although other forms of exercise are also important.

03Dr.

04Sarah Eby is a sports medicine physician with Mass General Brigham in the state of Massachusetts.

05Eby said, walking has many good effects, and people do not need extra things.

06You don't need equipment, and you don't need a gym membership, Eby noted, and the benefits are so vast.

07The U.S.

08Surgeon General, a federal health officer, recommends that adults get at least two and a half hours of moderate-intensity physical activity every week.

09Walking helps meet that goal.

10Exercise lowers the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, dementia, depression, and many kinds of cancer.

11Walking also helps blood sugar levels, is good for bone health, and can help people lose weight and sleep better.

12That is what Julie Schmeid said.

13She is a health care worker with Norton Health Care in Kentucky, which runs the free Get Healthy Walking Club.

14Walking is also a relatively low-impact exercise that puts less pressure on joints than other exercises, while strengthening the heart and lungs.

15James Blankenship is 68 years old.

16He said joining a walking club at the Louisville Zoo last year helped him recover after a heart attack and a complex triple-bypass heart operation in 2022.

17My cardiologist says I'm doing great, he said.

18Some say walking is not enough.

19Anita Gust teaches exercise science at the University of Minnesota Crookston.

20Gust said walking is not enough for overall health and well-being because it does not provide resistance training that builds muscle strength and endurance.

21Some health experts say that is especially important for healthy bone development in women as they age.

22Experts recommend adding other activities at least twice weekly.

23These could include using weights, gym equipment, or one's own body for resistance exercises.

24Training that improves flexibility, like yoga or stretching, can also be helpful.

25Many people have heard about the walking goal of 10,000 steps a day.

26This advice dates back to a 1960s marketing campaign in Japan.

27But experts note that this is only a guideline.

28Schmid said the average American walks about 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, and it is fine to increase that number to 10,000.

29Schmid suggests dividing the recommended 150 minutes per week into 30 minutes a day, or 10 minutes three times a day for five days.

30During rainy or snowy weather, people can walk in malls or on treadmills.

31As they become seasoned walkers, they can speed up or walk up hills while still keeping the activity level moderate.

32If you can talk but not sing, E.B.

33said, that's what we consider moderate intensity exercise.

34Walking with friends, including dogs, is one way to keep walking.

35Walking clubs have appeared across the nation.

36In 2022, 31-year-old personal trainer Brianna Joy Cohn started City Girls Who Walk with a TikTok post, inviting others to walk with her in New York.

37We had 250 girls show up, she said.

38Since then, the group has walked every Sunday for around 40 minutes, with some meeting afterward for a meal or coffee.

39The Louisville Zoo launched its walking club in 1987.

40It joined with Norton Healthcare in 2004 to expand it and now has more than 15,000 registered members.

41Every day from March 1st through October 31st, people walk around the zoo before it officially opens.

42Recently, Janet Rapp walked down a path through the city zoo, waving at friends and stopping briefly to greet big flightless birds called emus that she knows by name.

43The 71-year-old retiree starts each morning this way with a walking club.

44I'm obsessed, she said.

45Not only does it ease her joint pain, it just gives me energy, and then it calms me, too.

46I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.