I’m a major advocate of brisk walking added to the routine.
My typical day revolves around a 30+ minute brisk walk both during the morning and at night.
What it does for my body, mind, spirit, and creativity is unparalleled. It’s a habit I’ve stuck with for a long time because it’s made me feel great from every standpoint.
There’s one issue I must address though..
People underestimate the power of a walk
Going for a walk is arguably the easiest, but most effective thing you can do for your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
But there are a large number of people who believe it’s mundane.
Something to be ignored because it’s too simple.
This is the state we find ourselves in today. People will do anything in their power to remain within the comfort zone, even if that means sitting on the couch rather than going for a walk.
6 incredible benefits
There are countless benefits to routinely moving your body in the way it was evolutionarily designed to move, but we’ll cover six of them for brevity sake.
Destroy visceral fat
Brisk walking added to your routine does wonders for burning body fat, but no just any type of fat.. visceral fat (the nastiest stuff around).
This is the type of fat which resides on and near your organs which poses a significant risk to your well-being.
Joint protector
Regular walking supports your joints since it improves circulation and helps the lymphatic system do its job of pulling toxins out of the body and reducing chronic inflammation.
The more you move, the more your synovial joint fluid circulates which allows oxygen and nutrients to enter into damaged areas of the body.
Strengthens the heart
Brisk walking improves:
resting heart rate
blood pressure
exercise capacity
maximal oxygen consumption
quality of life
It protects your heart and strengthens its capacity to operate, produce more efficient blood flow, and maintain a healthy foundation for various degrees of training.
Remedy for depression
All forms of exercise enhance mood and reduce rates of anxiety/depression.
But walking is particularly powerful because it’s a simple activity most people can routinely do. This gives incredible hope for those dealing with poor mental health. All it takes is a commitment to a brisk walk to begin the healing process.
It’s free and can be done anywhere
A brisk walk offers universal access to anybody outside of those who are permanently, physically disabled.
Guess how much it costs too.. $0.
Supports bone health
Your risk of porous bone disease drop when you walk because you’re fighting gravity which means the more walks you take, the stronger your bones become.
Even the incidence of hip fractures in the elderly drops when they walk often.
The hunter-gatherer perspective
It’s no secret that our ancestors were almost always on the move.
They didn’t need a gym membership because movement was an inherent part of their lifestyle. It makes sense why they have such low rates of chronic disease.
According to this paper, all hunter-gatherers would typically walk between 16,000 - 17,000 steps per day. That’s about 8 miles.
10,000 is the minimum I achieve to hit on a daily basis, but I feel better when I get upwards of 15,000+ steps.
The more, the better.
The 2 B’s of walking
There are two important additions you’d be wise to add into your walking routine.
Walking barefoot
Walking backwards
Placing your feet on a natural surface of the Earth provides incredible healing potential by grounding your physiology and psychology. The Earth produces a negative charge which we need and evolved with.
Barefoot walks on the sand, grass, dirt, etc. are crucial.
In combination with that, we aim to walk backwards as well to strengthen different parts of the knee and build our proprioceptive capacity.
Start slow if you’ve never done either of these because you can hurt yourself if you go too far for too long.
Other than that, this is a winning recipe.
By the way..
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Sleep, hydration, nutrition, movement, supplementation.. everything you need to know covered in 8 weeks of 1-on-1 coaching.
Book a call and speak with me if this is something you’re serious about.
Much love,
Zaid