However, most people do everything they can to avoid walking and using those fantastic things we have called legs!
Instead, preferring to take the elevator or escalator up and down a few floors, a car or taxi to the restaurant three blocks away, or anything to avoid walking.
Why is that so? Convenience, society, culture, laziness, habit? Probably, all of the above.
My Daily Walking Goal
I aim to hit 10000 to 15000 steps a day with 1 longer walk and multiple short walks.
Walking is my main hobby because it supports my heart health, blood pressure, overall strength, mindset, and fun.
Scientific reports have shown significant benefits if you increase your daily steps to fifteen thousand.
Walking is the Best Form of Exercise, Period.
I’ve been saying that walking is the best thing you can do for your body and mind since I embarked on my health journey in 2016.
My right knee was replaced with a titanium prosthesis after a ski racing accident in 1990. To my surprise, my doctor told me to bike and walk (a lot) to recover.
Both activities were hellishly painful then, and I spent the first week cursing myself and the doctor who did this to me!
However, it was a blessing in disguise, as this process made me realize how beneficial walking was.
Despite walking on a leg that was battered, chiseled, and drilled only days ago, I noticed rapid improvements walk by walk — improvements in mind and body.
Keto-Carnivore Diet & Lifestyle
While recovering, I stumbled upon the Keto-Carnivore life and took in-depth nutrition, fitness, and healthy lifestyle health coaching course.
I hadn’t heard of Ancestral living and its health benefits. However, once I studied ancestral health, I started to understand a few things about the then state of my body and mind, and I retook charge of myself.
I haven’t looked back since! Recently, I’ve noticed more and more articles about walking on social media and various news outlets.
Even some health experts I follow who had previously not mentioned walking as an essential part of our lives have joined the discussion interestingly.
Even these experts must give in to this reality instead of only pushing their subscriptions.
The Importance of Walking.
Just to let you know, by walking, I mean “fast-paced” walking or “power-walking.” Strolling around doesn’t count – well, it does, but it serves another purpose, with more on that later (mindful and meditative walking).
So why is walking so important? Let’s take a look at the benefits of my personal experience with clients I have coached, as well as scientific evidence:
Physical Benefits of Walking:
• Burns fat, as walking is a cardio exercise that keeps you within the aerobic fat-burning zone of 180 maximum heart rate, minus your age
• Running, biking, rowing, and other similar cardio-categorized exercises often kick you out of that aerobic zone where you no longer burn fat
• Walking helps you lose weight
• You will lower your blood pressure
• Walking will lower your stroke risk
• Easy on your joints, especially ankles, knees, and back, compared to running, which pounds ankles, knees, and back, causing injury and arthritis over time
• Walking builds bone strength, as the low impact supports bone density
• Walking is excellent for your heart health, as your heart is never overstressed while walking but is trained efficiently at a safe heart rate
• Stimulates all of your organs to work more efficiently
• Fantastic for your legs, especially if you walk in the sand or are trekking hills, in forests, or hiking. Walking builds powerful and lean muscles
• Have a headache? Walking in the fresh air will help get rid of it
• Are you feeling tired or sluggish in the morning? A fast-paced walk will bring a spring back into your step
• Maybe you are feeling stiff from a long-distance flight or car ride? Walk it off – it works
• Jetlagged from the 14-hour time zone difference? An hour’s power walk will soothe the symptoms
• Combining walking with a bodyweight workout, which I call my Primal Trek, is one of the absolute best ways to strength train and burn fat. It’s way more fun and enjoyable than slugging away in the gym!
• Poor posture from your desk job and slouching? Walking corrects posture. All you need to do is to make sure you are walking standing up straight, shoulders back and chest out, not hunched over with shoulders hanging forward
• Barefoot walking: Walking connects you with nature and is grounding at any time. Barefoot walking, especially in the sand, grass, or dirt, stimulates the muscles and nerves in the feet and creates a deeper connection to the earth. In addition, barefoot walking restores our natural walking pattern and builds stronger leg muscles, vital for lower back support.
Psychological Benefits:
• Cut stress and anxiety by walking fast-paced in nature
• Is your mind blocked, and you can’t focus on work or life? Go for a walk, and it will free your mind and stimulate the creative side of your brain
• Decisions, decisions, decisions, and can’t make them? Walking, stop thinking, and your mind will align itself again and help you come to sensible conclusions
• Depression is one of the most complex illnesses to overcome. I suffered from depression for several years – at first, I didn’t realize what it was, but once I did, walking and meditation are what helped me the most
• Angry, disappointed, or any other negative emotions? Walking will relax you, calm your mind, and bring back a sense of balance
• Don’t like to sit still and meditate? As I mentioned above, this is where “strolling walking” is worth gold. I have practiced this for years as well. Stopping to smell the roses certainly works. Mindful meditative walking is what I call this exercise, and this is how it’s done:
Walk slowly, look around your environment, and take it all in. Then stop, breathe, smile, and be thankful to be able to be there, healthy and alive
• You feel lazy and sluggish but guilty because you haven’t exercised all day? Then walking is your answer. Just get outside, rain or shine, cold or warm, and walk fast-paced for half an hour. You will feel much better, in body and mind!
Scientific Evidence:
• THE best thing to do to improve our overall health and longevity.www.consumerreports.org
• Walking can lower the risk of cancer. www.cancer.org
• Longer life. A review of studies published in 2014 in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that walking for roughly 3 hours a week was associated with an 11 percent reduced risk of premature death compared with those who did little or no activity
• Better memory and cognitive function. A clinical trial of older adults in Japan published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in 2015 found that after 12 weeks, men and women in a prescribed daily walking exercise group had significantly more improvements in memory
Final Thoughts
What more need I say? The path to weight loss, strength, a calm mind, and overall good health is way more accessible than most people think – and not only that.
Daily walking, swimming, or other low-key and easy-to-do cardio activities you enjoy will likely extend your life and aid you in living an enjoyable active lifestyle at any age!
Walking will significantly support your health and well-being across the board, physically and psychologically.
Exercising, being healthier, losing weight, and improving muscle mass do not need to be as daunting as the health and fitness industry and all the “experts” say.
The health and fitness industry is only interested in making money – they are NOT interested in your health and well-being.
You do not need to join a gym or buy expensive subscriptions, join all kinds of group or personal workout classes – there is a much easier path to health, fitness, and happiness.
My key message is simple – take control of your health and life, get outside, walk, and move as much as possible.
Pro-Tip: Move your body in natural ways every day.
Rob Hourmont
Please subscribe to my blog by clicking this link.
Please download my E-Books for a complete picture of food and what it does to your body, and much more here:
My E-Books offer complete in-depth nutrition, fitness, and wellness knowledge, helping you to lose excess weight, keep it off, work out smart, and live an active, healthy, and happy life & plenty of LIFE LESSONS!
