9 Surprising Benefits of Daily Walking!

At LiveWell50, you'll hear us talk a lot about establishing a daily walking program. Not 3 days a week, not 4 days a week, not 5 days a week. But ideally, we are all walking 7 days a week intentionally for exercise. Establishing a long-term walking program is probably the best health insurance that you could possibly do for your present self and future self. We've all heard about this magical 10,000 steps a day is what we should be getting. If you're getting 10,000 steps a day or more like some of the members are, great, keep it going. That's excellent. But if you look at the literature, what really is the minimal amount in order to reap the long-term benefits or as I call it, the compound interest benefits of exercise? And the answer is about 7,500 steps. Now that being said, I've got some clients whose sweet spot is more like 4,000 to 5,000 steps a day. So you really have to find what your sweet spot is in terms of your activity level, your age, other factors that might be going on as well too. I have one client who likes to hit 5,000 steps a day because then that still gives her enough time to cook, do a little cleaning and not feel exhausted. She's 83 and so the numbers are going to change and her steps are going to change based upon how old you are. But find that sweet spot. I have another lady who walks about 6,000 steps a day because if she tries to walk further, her hip starts to bother her. So we've been working on her hip so that we can hopefully increase that and get her up to that 7,000, 8,000 which is where she wants to be. We're going to quickly talk about the nine benefits of establishing a daily walking exercise program. Number one, walking protects against heart disease. Cardiovascular disease, unfortunately, is the number one killer for both men and women. So it makes sense that if we are on a proactive daily walking program that improves cardiovascular system, cardiovascular function, it's going to reduce our chance of any type of cardiovascular disease. Number two, walking daily helps to control blood sugar levels and especially if you are pre-diabetic or even if you are a diabetic. We have this extra glucose, basically sugar that's floating in the system, in the bloodstream. As we walk and as we use muscles and as we strengthen, that muscle requires energy. So it pulls that sugar, that glucose out of the bloodstream and therefore reduces your blood sugar levels. So walking is a great way to help manage your blood sugar levels. Number three, lowers your blood pressure. Once again, the direct effect on the cardiovascular system. Number four, what if I told you a daily walking program will actually decrease your chance of even getting cancer? You know, bladder cancer, esophageal cancer, colon cancer, and there's about four or five more. Bottom line on that is when you exercise, a lot of good things happen and we're lowering our chance of chronic, sometimes potentially fatal diseases. Number six, what if I told you our brains are shrinking? Yeah, I know, it's not something that we all want to hear, but it's true. One to two percent every year, our brains actually get smaller. Part of it is, is because we're not using it like the way we were when we were younger. And so not only we want to work on learning new tasks, but exercise, particularly, I know, walking, can actually help to improve the size of the hippocampus. And the hippocampus is responsible for consolidation of memories, long-term memories, helps with cognition. So anything that's good for the body is also good for the brain. And so by regularly walking, you can actually not only prevent the decrease of your brain shrinking, but actually contribute to actually the brain growing a little bit. Number six, improved sleep. Research has shown that if you are walking on a daily, regular basis, it not only improves the quality of your sleep, but how easily you fall asleep as well too. If you're having trouble sleeping, another reason why you want to establish a walking program. Number seven is a big one. A lot of my clients suffer from depression. And some of them are on medications, but they don't like the way they make them feel. Others are on the medication, but it's only working partially. Research has shown that a regular walking program can be just as effective in certain situations as taking prescription medication for helping to reduce the signs of depression. Yeah, I know, right? So that's great. So if you do suffer, maybe it's subclinical, maybe you're not getting medication, but you know you're just kind of feeling blah, get out there and start walking. It might take a little while, but a daily walk, not only do you get all the other benefits, but it can actually be a mood elevator as well too. Number eight is a given. It reduces joint muscle pain and gets us stronger. Pretty self-explanatory. As we start to get more mature, our body starts to change. We have more age-related changes. Sometimes we have some arthritic joints. And the best thing that we can do for arthritic joints is movement. Now we might have to gauge it and grade it a little bit, but we do need to move, and walking is a great way to help improve mobility and joint flexibility. And finally, number nine, spark your creativity. And this is an interesting one too. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple computers, was notoriously known for his walking meetings. And so he'd have the board, instead of sitting around this big meeting drinking coffee and having donuts, he would actually get them to walk around the Apple campuses. Because remember, anything that helps your physical body also helps your cognition. So it makes sense that you are more creative, able to solve problems a little bit better, and to think a little bit clearly as you are doing something physical. And the great thing about walking is that we can do it anywhere. So improve your creativity by walking. In the next video, we're going to talk about specific advice for people who do have arthritis. And there's a few things to consider before jumping right into an exercise program.