Walking Benefits for Fitness and Stress Relief

Bicycling and walking as healthy mode of moving. They can be expressed in terms of the health of environment and resulting health of all living things and individuals who are more physically active. A transportation system that is conducive to bicycling and walking can reap many benefits in terms of reduced traffic congestion and improved quality of life. And in case of health walking is good for your heart, lungs, muscles and bone growth of children. Morning time walk also relief us from stress.

Walking Benefits

Reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke

Lower blood pressure, stress and control body weight

Reduce high cholesterol and body fat and enhance mental well being

Increase bone density, hence helping to prevent osteoporosis

Reduce the risk of cancer of the colon and non insulin dependant diabetes Provides flexibility and co-ordination and reduces the risk of falls

Increases the longevity of your life by providing mental peace

Relieves backache trouble and remedy for arthritis problem

Gives proper sleep at night

Walk to improve health, remain fit, control weight, and to recover from a period of ill health.

Weight Control

Walking of a mile can burn up sufficient amount of energy. Walking also alters fat metabolism so that fat is burned up instead of sugars, helping to reduce weight.

Mental Health

Walking has been shown to improve self-esteem, relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety, and improve mood. Walking, particularly in pleasant surroundings, and with other people, offers many opportunities for relaxation and social contacts also.

Regain Health after Illness

Walking for people suffering from a range of conditions is much more beneficial. After illness, always take your doctor's advice about walking. In starting, you should walk only a very short way at a gentle pace, but if you do this regularly you will soon increase your capacity for distance and pace. Walking peoples found that walking in a group gives better concentration.

Over Training

Over training (staleness, over fatigue, chronic fatigue, over training syndrome) is a rather usual problem among athletes. The physiological homeostasis of an over trained athlete's body has become disturbed. Regulatory mechanisms of the body can not return back to the balance during the one or two days which is a normal recovery time. At first the over training state can be mild, and if an athlete rests, his body recovers fast. Later it may be more severe, and an athlete will be exhausted. The exhaustion is typical for experienced endurance athletes, who usually react in this way. Overtraining-like states can also be induced by mental, social, economical and environmental stress. These factors together with physical training cause total stress which influences on the body. Stress can be caused by both positive and negative psychological factors. These may be e.g. holiday, vacation, personal achievement, change in residence, school or job, change in social and recreational habits, financial problems, divorce, trouble at school, trouble with the law, death or birth in the family. Physiological factors cause stress as well. This kind of factors may be e.g. travel, sleep loss, races, changes in training, environmental changes (altitude, humidity, temperature), illness, injury, menstrual cycle or pregnancy. Highly motivated athletes have to keep in mind that the balance between training, other stressors and recovery has to be right, i.e., they have to periodisize their training in the right way. If there is an uncompleted recovery time after exercises, fatigue starts to accumulate and after a few days or weeks symptoms of over training with a drop in performance will arise. As a result, recovery may take weeks or months. Signs and symptoms of over training vary from athlete to athlete. The symptoms and signs are due to changes in the function of the autonomic nervous system, hormonal status, immunological parameters and other physiological and musculoskeletal changes of the body. Typically, an athlete feels tiredness and fatigue and notices a drop or stagnation in performance despite of continuing training.

Examples of psychological and psychosomatic over training signs and symptoms: depression, fatigue, irritability, bad mood, anxiousness, confusion, excitement, desperation, lack of concentration unwillingness to train feeling of inability to go on training sleeping problems bad appetite shaking hands abnormal sweating palpitation nausea dizziness .

Examples of physiological over training signs and symptoms:

increased resting and sub maximal heart rate muscle soreness decreased maximal heart rate menstrual irregularities decreased performance loss of strength increased illness and injury frequency loss of co-ordination.