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Walking

Here in South Devon we are spoilt for choice with beautiful countryside and beach walks. Walking is one of the safest and most effective forms of exercise to do and regular walking can help to increase your energy levels, increasing productivity throughout the day. Building a walk, or several small walks, into your daily routine can encourage good habits and can make significant improvements to your overall health and wellbeing.  The government recommends at least 10,000 steps per day and research has shown that a minimum of just 10 minutes brisk walking a day, or 150 minutes a week, can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

There are so many different ways to add more walking into your daily life:

  • Catching up with a friend, walking the dog (or a friend’s)
  • Popping to the shops on foot instead of driving
  • Walking part of your journey to work
  • Planning a daily walk so that it becomes part of your daily routine
  • Small mini walks
  • Instead of sending an email to a colleague in the office walk to their desk and talk face to face
  • Take a longer route to your destination
  • Park the car at the far end of the car park
  • Use stairs instead of escalators or a lift
  • Use public transport – helps to increase steps as you will need to walk to stations, bus stops etc (and good for the environment!)
  • Join a walking group

Relax and enjoy the scenery

To avoid injury and muscle soreness, warming up and cooling down are always important. Wearing layers will help to keep your body at a comfortable temperature and walking boots or trainers with socks should be worn to help absorb impact – walking on grass is preferable to pounding on pavements! This can be a great way to relax and enjoy new scenery. You can always make the walk more interesting by varying your route and speed. Joining a group or club is a great way to make walking a healthy habit and to keep you motivated.

Walking in the morning helps the circadian rhythm to reset. Melatonin aids sleep, and levels are reduced with early morning walks allowing them to gradually increase throughout the day to aid sleep at night.