It’s easy to get caught up in the “more is more” mentality of exercise, but the truth is, it doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. In fact, one of the simplest types of exercise — walking — is one of the most beneficial exercises, especially for anyone in their golden years.
For this reason, many communities for assisted living in Tallahassee encourage walking and provide beautiful grounds for doing so. Whether you live in an assisted living facility in Tallahassee or not, it’s a good idea to learn about some of the ways walking each day can help to keep your heart healthy.
Critical Benefits of Walking for Heart Health
Daily cardiovascular exercise like walking elevates your heart rate, which can reduce issues like high cholesterol and high blood pressure. In addition, walking can help lower your risk of diabetes by 40% and stroke by 35%.
All of these benefits, along with many others, work to improve the health of your heart. In addition to heart health, other benefits of daily walking include:
- Reduced back pain
- Reduced joint pain
- Lowered blood sugar
- Improved mental health
- Elevated mood
- Improved immune system health
As for your heart, research has found that walking 30 minutes per day, five days per week can reduce your risk of coronary heart disease by almost 20%.
How Does Walking Each Day Improve Your Heart Health?
When you are engaged in aerobic activity like walking, your heart rate increases because your body requires more blood and more oxygen in order to keep going. The heart is a muscle; the more it works, the stronger it becomes.
The pressure that your heart is under on a daily basis will also decrease with regular exercise. Walking can alleviate many health conditions that are associated with stress. These conditions can negatively impact your heart health. Some of these conditions include obesity, metabolic syndrome, blood lipid abnormalities, and high blood sugar.
For people who already have a degree of heart disease, walking can prevent further disease and damage from happening.
Walking in Communities for Assisted Living in Tallahassee
In addition to reducing direct stress on the heart, daily walking lowers the overall stress on a person’s body and mind. This is another reason why so many communities for assisted living in Tallahassee encourage the activity so much.
Stress hormones add quite an extra burden to the heart. Exercises like walking can help reduce stress by increasing endorphins in your body. This supports the heart by reducing the workload that it has to manage.
Walking Improves Blood Flow
Physical activity like walking enables the heart to achieve improved blood flow throughout the small blood vessels that surround it. Blockages of fatty deposits can otherwise develop in these vessels over time.
By walking, you can encourage better circulation and reduce the risk of heart attacks. In addition to preventing blockages, walking also creates more physical connections between small blood vessels, so the blood has more ways to travel where it needs to go.
In addition to all of these benefits, walking can reduce the incidence of heart arrhythmia, promote other heart-healthy habits, and more. Ready to get out on the sidewalks or head to your favorite park? Grab your sneakers and get going!
