Walking is itself a kind of exercise that provides the human body with several health gains.
Walking is an exercise to improve your mental and physical health.
The National Institute of Health reveals walking has the potential to minimize the risk of heat-related illness, diabetes and high blood pressure, fortify your bones and muscles, bolster weight management and several other benefits.
Walking is also very useful for people who have sore joints as it demands no special equipment and can be incorporated into whatever is best for the body. However, you may be overwhelmed to learn the diverse ways of walking can be very advantageous.
Interval walking is a way of doing high-intensity interval exercise where you joggle between mild-paced periods of walking and more severe or vigorous intervals.
An interval walk encompasses a series of fast, measured and reasonable walking to enable a heart-pumping, demanding and strenuous workout.
Here on this page, we will talk about the advantages walking does to the body and how to go about it. Ensure to get advice and recommendations from your healthcare giver before engaging in any new exercise routine.
Benefits of Interval Walking
It Enhances Your Cardiovascular Fitness
The different paces in interval walking boost you’re the ability of the body to provide oxygen to muscles.
According to Rachel MacPherson, an ACE-certified personal trainer claims incorporating extreme intervals propels your cardiovascular to work much more efficiently and reduce the risks of heart illnesses, stroke and dementia.
You Burn More Calories
Switching between an informal stride and periods of a higher intensity shoots up your immune system to increase calorie expenditure and it maximizes the space you cover.
It Enhances Your Endurance And Stamina
The moment you are able to inspire yourself with an extreme interval you can slow down to a more convenient pace and that pause is what makes interval walking seem functional and something you can adopt and keep at it.
It controls your blood sugar levels
Your muscles contain glucose necessary for energy during physical activity which reduces your blood sugar and walking is an ideal option to carry out that activity.
It has been proven that walking develops glucose regulation in humans who are suffering from diabetes.
Interval walking is reported to have assisted in the prevention of the growth of type 2 diabetes too.
It Enhances The Quality Of Sleep
A more rigorous physical activity such as fast-paced interval walking is deemed to have bolstered the quality of sleep.
A study indicated that increasing your daily steps helps to minimize stress and daytime drowsiness whilst boosting your sleep.
It Lowers Your Blood Pressure
Doing interval walking can significantly have a positive impact on the heart as it lowers your blood pressure by aiding your cardiovascular system to function effectively.
A study conducted by the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease revealed that taking steps numbering about 3,000 per day, 5 times a week minimizes systolic and diastolic blood pressure in inactive older adults with high blood pressure.
Switching times and series of measured-paced walking and extremely rigorous increases your heart rate thus enhancing an increased flow of blood and circulation and this will in turn decrease blood pressure in the long run.
It Boosts The Endorphin Rush
Among the reasons many love to indulge in interval waking is the feeling they get or have after carrying out that routine.
For instance, you would do a 5-minute measured-paced interval followed by a fast minute-long interval, or one minute of considerable walking preceded by 30 seconds of intense walking.
So long as you infuse your slower intervals with at least 30 seconds of intense walking, your endorphin is being reinforced.
Interval Walking Is A Good Workout Activity For Those Who Seeking A Return To Exercise
Interval walking is a useful tool for those wanting to return to aerobic sessions after nursing treating an injury or recovering from pregnancy.
If you find yourself in this situation, ensure you can walk at a maintained pace and replenish without pain the next day. It is an ideal thing to consult your doctor before adopting a new workout routine into your activities.
Athletics who ply their trade on the track or long-distance runners and want to heal fast after an injury would normally adopt fast-paced interval walking.
How To Do Interval Walking
The interesting thing about interval walking is that you can perform the activity in several forms and curate it to suit your preference on any given day.
Use a watch to keep track of rest periods and the duration to maximize your walking speed and agility. Listening to music can also be very helpful and applying the use of landmarks can assist you in measuring your intervals and adding speed as you walk.
Also, take note that it is imperative to keep yourself or your body well-hydrated before embarking on the venture.
First of all, it is advised that you begin with a warm-up for about 5 minutes and begin slow before you speed up your interval walking where your breath is still under control.
Repeat the procedure of speeding up for a snappy spurt, then returning to a measured walking pace for a much longer duration.
Maximize your intensity for a short period that strictly makes it convenient for you and this could be 15 seconds, 30 seconds or even a minute long.
The endgame is to maximize your heart rate for a while but not take it to the level where you are straining yourself abnormally.
You can blend the durations of each pace however you want it to be, however, basically, the major chunk of the walk is carried out at a considerable pace with the faster pace done across the routine.
It is very normal to this a workout at a 2-to-1 ratio, it suggests that you walk at a measured pace for double the amount of time of a fast pace but it depends on you on how you want to place the intervals in your walk.
