Health benefits
Expert's View Fitness Health

Introduction

The pandemic made the busy roads, schools, and many more empty. This made the teenagers, middle-agers and old people stay at home and they mostly spend time, sitting. While researchers say that walking around 7 thousand steps per day reduces the risk of death by 50% – 70% and increases many health benefits.

Recent study and AHA

This matches up with the “150 minutes of exercise in a week” recommendation by American Heart Association. You can switch with bicycling and swimming if walking is not your interest.

7000 steps is an optical place of action for health benefits, say experts.
A recent study of 11 years follow-up, witnessed that people who took seven thousand steps had reduced risk of death from all causes in comparison to them who took fewer steps each day.
It seems the speed of their movement didn’t matter. Income level, weight, smoking, race, and diet are factors that are held regardless of the findings.

Low steps group with low health benefits:

Researchers examined data in the 20th year of analysis including 2 thousand participants with an average age of 45. Around 57% of participants that is more than half were women and 42% were Black. A considerably higher proportion of Black and women participants are in the lowest step group.

Compared with participants of high and moderate step volume groups, low step group had:

  • surged prevalence of diabetes and stage 2 hypertension
  • hiked BMI
  •  higher self-rated health

Promising news by experts about health benefits:

Experts tell that the study must render a motivation for most people. Dr. Michael said that sometimes people might get discouraged by hiked exercise goals like 10,000 steps which seems unachievable. And they feel that its not worth even trying. The sports medicine and internal medicine physician said by having evidence that some exercise is better than no exercise might stimulate people to follow.

He says that the prime point to remind is that physical activity, and exercise, in general, is good for us. One research study can rarely make changes to overall guidelines. So it’s worth following public health guidelines when taking health decisions like brisk walking or consults a doctor.

Alternative guidelines to walking:

Pay attention to physical activity guidelines put forward by American Heart Association:

  •  Moderate-intensity aerobic activity such as walking, for 150 minutes per week.
  • Substitute it with vigorous aerobic activity for 75 minutes per week like rowing, uphill hiking, or running.
  • A combination of both is another alternative, spread out over the week.
  • Include muscle-strengthening activity, moderate-intensity to high-intensity such as weights or resistance on at least 2 days per week.
  • Light-intensity activities like sitting for a long time can be counteracted for rising of risks.
  • Hike the intensity and amount with time.
    Tiso who conducted the study said that a rise in heart rate is necessary to enhance cardiovascular fitness which can be attained with different activities.

Moderate-Intensity activities for health benefits:

Though this study didn’t focus on increasing health benefits The study didn’t look at increasing health benefits after 7,000 steps per day.
AHA says more health benefits can be gained by staying active for 300 minutes per week with a combination of activities. This translates to around 5 hours over 7 days.

Some examples of activities to attain the ideal goal are

MODERATE-INTENSITY

  • dancing like ballroom or social
  • brisk walking around 2.5 miles per hour
  • gardening
  • water aerobics
  • tennis – doubles
  • biking slower than 10 miles per hour

MORE INTENSITY:

  • aerobic dancing
  • hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack
  • jumping rope
  • heavy yard work like continuous digging or hoeing
  • running
  • cycling 10 miles per hour or faster
  • swimming laps
  • tennis (singles)
    You can merely follow the American Health Association’s key piece to intensely move more and sit less if you are not on step counting or numbers.

Conclusion:

So basically it’s not only brisk walking but there are many alternatives. If you are starting to add one activity to your routine, don’t be discouraged when you can’t make the best on the first day. Start with short durations and eventually increase them. So, stay active and live healthier!

Subin Joshua
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Author: Hi there, my name is Subin Joshua, and I am a Medical student. I grew up in a family of teachers and know that being a social worker is my calling. My passion for helping others has been evident in my involvement in helping the poor and needy for the last three years. Through those experiences, I have learned to interact with a diverse group of people, which has increased my ability to relate to others.