Walking at a moderate pace of 5 kilometres per hour will provide you with enough energy to met the definition of 'moderate physical exercise'. Furthermore walking is able to provide the kind of preventative benefits that are usually seen with the more strenuous forms of exercise. It can help to ward off degenerative illnesses such as diabetes (diabetes 2) as long as the walking was undertaken on a regular basis. The risk was lowest amongst those people who walked at a brisker pace.

Walking also appears to promote identical oxygen consumption to running. When men of a sedentary nature were asked to jog for six times a week for thirty minutes, as part of a program of endurance training, they consumed the same amount of oxygen as walkers who were walking for the same length of time and frequency. The only difference was that the joggers had higher levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is a beneficial cholesterol, for the body.

Participating in only three months of brisk walking can lower levels of blood insulin and even a single fast walk will improve the blood cholesterol levels. However an interesting fact is that exercise intensity does not seem to matter in fat processing. With low and moderate intensity walking, fat levels in the blood and fat oxidation were similar among men with normal cholesterol levels.

The good news is that walking does not need to be done all at one time. Whether it is done in one session or accumulated throughout the day, just thirty minutes of brisk walking will reduce blood fats and increase fat burning. In women, short amounts of brisk walking have resulted in similar improvements to the fitness and decreased body fats. Longer amounts of brisk walking achieved the same results as long as they were of the same total duration.

In order to achieve the maximum benefit you will need to go for a brisk walk at least five times a week. A short period of twenty minutes, three times a week will not be enough to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease but three, ten minute sessions a day can improve the cardiovascular risks and pay dividends in terms of preventative medicine.

Why is walking better for you than running? Running is undoubtedly much harder on the lower limbs with the likely injuries being stress fractures, soft tissue injuries such as shin splints, Achilles tendonitis. Knee pain and other problems. These problems include simple inflammation to structural degeneration.

Andrew Tomkinson is a writer of Articles on matters of fitness, health and nutrition

Andrew Tomkinson
July 29 2008

This is an Article about the benefits of walking to men and women.

Source: http://www.healthandyou.org

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