Do You Want Increased Longevity?

Here’s the secret ingredient to longevity…

Walking!

Walking 21 minutes per day can decrease your risk of heart disease by 30% (According to Harvard Medical School)

Considering that heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and Europe and that one person dies every 34 seconds in the US from heart disease, that’s a big deal!

If health and longevity is your primary concern, a solid foundation of cardiovascular fitness/daily activity needs to be present in your life.

Walking has SO many benefits, but here are a few of them:

• Walking boosts immune function: it increases the number of white blood cells circulating throughout the body. White blood cells fight infection!
• Walking helps to protect and lubricate joints: our bodies were made to move! Moving helps to increase blood flow, which helps boost production of synovial fluid (check our previous post on the benefits of hydration for more on this!).
• Walking helps to maintain a healthy body weight: if you’re looking to lose weight, working out for an hour at the gym is important, but less effective if you spend the rest of the day sitting. Adding in short walks throughout the day has much more of an impact than the one workout you did if the rest of your day is spent in a chair.
• Walking helps to boost your mood: again, we were meant to move. The simple act of continuously moving forward can boost mood. It increases blood and energy flow to the brain, and promotes the release of endorphins.
• Walking increases your ability to handle stress. Walking not only helps to reduce cortisol, which lowers stress levels, but it creates a better environment for your brain to handle stress, which you will inevitably have.

So, when’s the last time you went on a walk?!

You don’t have to hit 10k steps a day. Start small.

If you find it hard to get walks in, find a time in your day that you can get a 5 minute walk in regularly (right after lunch, for example).

Once you’re consistent with that, build from there.

We are meant to move, and there are way too many benefits to walking (which we all have access to) to pass up!

Don’t sleep on walking; it’s one of the best exercises you can do to keep yourself healthy across your entire lifespan.