Walking for your wellbeing

There’s nothing quite as simple and effective as walking to help improve your health. It’s free, accessible, helps to boost your mood and also supports you to maintain a healthy weight.

Walking on a regular basis has also been found to help cut the risk of a number of health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer.

In this video by Mental Health Foundation, listen to personal stories on how nature has supported people with their mental health. From boosting mood to helping you manage stress, learn about the different benefits spending time outdoors can offer. Find further information on nature and mental health on the Mind website.

How much walking is needed?

The Cooper Centre Longitudinal Study is the world’s largest and longest study exploring the link between physical fitness and health. It has shown that regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to protect your health and boost wellbeing. The findings highlighted an interesting point; being moderately fit (rather than super fit) brought about the greatest increase in health benefits.

It also found that the level of activity required to achieve this degree of moderate fitness equates to just 30 minutes of brisk walking on most days. And there’s more good news… you don’t even need to complete the thirty minutes in one go. The study found it’s just as beneficial to break it up into smaller chunks of at least ten minutes if needed.

In fact, research shows that ‘exercise snacking’ is even more beneficial because it provides repeated boosts to your metabolism throughout the day. This has a greater affect on burning calories, controlling blood pressure, improving cholesterol and managing blood glucose than if you had exercised just once but for a longer period of time.

Put your best foot forward

Building regular walks into your daily routine is easier than you may think, especially if you’re exercise snacking. Walking to the shops, using stairs instead of lifts or escalators, walking your children to school and regular walks after your evening meal are all great ways of getting those steps in.

Another great benefit of walking is that it can often take you out into nature where extensive research shows that microbes from the soil, chemicals released by plants and the negative charge of air can all have really positive effects on both your mental wellbeing and your immune system.

There are lots of great wearable devices and smartphone apps which help you to keep track of the steps you take and the routes you walk. Some also include motivational coaching and step challenges with other people to help keep you motivated and inspired.

Above all, the secret is to enjoy your walking. So try to plan routes you’ll enjoy, get your family, friends and the dog involved if you have one, and go and enjoy the fresh air!