Walking is often seen as inferior to running when it comes to improving your fitness, but brisk walking is an unsung hero. So what can walking do for you?

Benefit your physical health

Brisk walking burns as many calories per mile as running does, so it’s great for weight loss. Walking for just 10 mins at a time at a pace of approximately 3 miles an hour will build your stamina and contribute to your heart health.

But how do you know if you are walking briskly enough? Well there’s an app for that!

Active10 developed by the NHS tells you when you're walking fast enough and suggests ways to fit in some more brisk walking.

Download from Apple Store

Download from Google Play

Want to know more, check out the Walking for Health page of the NHS website.

Walking also boosts your immune system. Harvard Health Publishing states:

“ Walking can help protect you during cold and flu season. A study of over 1,000 men and women found that those who walked at least 20 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, had 43% fewer sick days than those who exercised once a week or less. And if they did get sick, it was for a shorter duration, and their symptoms were milder.”

Benefit your mental well-being

Walking, particularly walking outdoors has a positive impact on your mental health.

But why?

Walking outdoors improves your mental health as sunshine (even the limited sunshine we get in Scotland!) naturally increases serotonin, a hormone that affects your mood. And exercise itself produces endorphins, another feel-good hormone that boosts your mood and reduces pain.

Studies show that walking can have a similar impact to cognitive behavioural therapy on preventing future episodes of depression.

Want to know more?

The Hunt Cohort Study tracked over 30,000 participants over 11 years and concluded that regular leisure-time exercise of any intensity provides protection against future depression.

Improve your creativity

Walking makes you more creative was the claim made by neuroscientist Professor Shane O’Mara, (author of In Praise of Walking: The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us”) in a recent Paths for All digital lecture.

Referring to studies indicating that study participants had approximately twice as many ideas when faced with a problem to solve while moving (walking) than when seated. O’Mara also broke the good news that active older adults can beat sedentary youths when it comes to idea generation…great news for this 50 year old!

So three great reasons to get walking, and if you would like the added advantage of connecting with people while walking, check out our weekly NETwalking events.

We are told that brisk walking is the best way to raise the heart rate and reap the physical and mental benefits of our daily lockdown activity. But what exactly is brisk?

Credible sources give a pace range of anything 13 to 20 minutes to walk a mile as being a useful guide. However, the definition of brisk is all relative and depends on many individual factors like current level of fitness, age and level of mobility. Our perception can also vary from day to day, a night of poor sleep may impact on how hard we believe we are working on any particular day.

The RPE scale (Rate of Perceived Exertion) is a good guide to judging your level of effort at any given moment and is a great tool to determine whether you are walking “briskly”. It also helps gauge when you may be pushing things a little too hard.

In summary, maintaining an RPE of around 6 to 7 as shown in the infographic offers a good guide to defining brisk FOR YOU, TODAY.