Brisk walking (sports walking or sportive walking) has come to stay. It has become a real alternative for some people who could not join in the running phenomenon for one reason or the other. The article today will highlight 7 benefits and 3 techniques of brisk walking.

I love walking and I can easily bag over 10K steps every day. Could this be converted to cash? That is a story for another day (laugh out loud). But seriously speaking the versatility and ease of brisk walking means that more and more people have launched into this high-speed form of exercise.

The benefits are endless and there are many situations in which brisk walking is highly recommended to be the most direct source of health:

• Faced with joint problems and overweight.
• Asthmatics and diabetics
• Mild heart disease
• Chronic sedentary

Read: Benefits of Brisk Walking to Mental Health

Brisk walking is also an option for people who do long-distance training and want to do some active rest sessions or recovery after the great and intense efforts. It should be noted that walking briskly also increases caloric expenditure and produces the same cardiovascular and muscular improvements just like jogging.

So, what are some of the benefits of brisk walking?

7 reasons to start Brisk walking (benefits)

Some people think that walking is a ‘lazy’ form of exercise as it can never match the benefits of running or come even close to the cardiovascular stimulation of continuous running. Guess what…the post today is going to burst that myth.

Have you ever checked your pulse after a brisk walk and see how fast your heart is beating per minute? You will be surprised! Be sure to check your pulse the next time you go brisk walking.

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Sportive walking will achieve the same benefits like for someone who went running, in addition to a reduction on some quite important damages, such as injuries to the muscles.

It should be emphasised that this article is by no means saying running is bad for you but trying to shed some light on the fact that everyone is different and no form of exercise is better than the other. So, without further ado these are the 7 benefits of brisk walking:

1- It puts the peripheral vascular system to work, thereby lowering blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.

2- It reduces the cholesterol level in the blood and helps to lose weight and burn fat.

3- Improves strength in the muscles of the legs and abdomen.

4- It makes the coronary system and the heart muscles work, thereby reducing the heart rate at rest.

5- It helps to control diabetes and patients may require less insulin doses.

6- It is less aggressive on the joints as it has minimal impact.

7- It makes our brain secrete different types of endorphins (such as serotonin and dopamine), which improve sleep control and reduce stress levels.

3 techniques to get started with Brisk walking.

In the same way that we think that everyone knows the best running posture, we should however consider these 3 techniques for anyone wanting to start on the sportive walking sessions. Once we get the techniques right, then It is just a matter of picking up the pace, speeding up, and letting yourself go.

Here are the 3 techniques for the best brisk walking experience.

1) Maintaining posture: we must not force our hips backward or forwards, we must keep them in a neutral position (see figure above). If we also have some experience of Pilates, we can remember that during a session we contract the deep abdominals while we breathe, to work on our CORE area. During sports walking, we adopt a neutral position.

2) Do not force your arms: the position of the arms should be with the elbow bent at 90º, but without using force or raising the shoulders, since we will overload the muscles of the clavicle and neck area unnecessarily.

3) Make full support of the sole, but without forcing the first contact with the heel by raising the toes to avoid impacting on the muscles of the tibia and fibula area.

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Finally, do not forget that footwear is an important aspect as if you were to go for a stroll on a rainy day, thereby needing to wear your wellies. An exorbitant budget is not essential, but you will need some walking shoes with which you feel comfortable.

Hope the 7 benefits and 3 techniques mentioned in this post will motivate you to start brisk walking. Let us know in the comments area below.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and see you in the next post.