4 Health Benefits Of Walking 10,000 Steps A Day

So maybe you’re like me and you’re wondering what all this talk is about 10,000 steps and walking 10K steps a day? Why do I need to know? What’s the magic in that? Well on this video, I’m going to share with you 4 health benefits from walking 10K steps a day.

I was reading this great article, as you do. And I too was intrigued, because a friend of mine said that she was enjoying getting in her 10 K steps a day and kept checking her ‘steps’. Anyway, I found out that 10K steps works out at just under 5 miles and there are so many benefits and it made me think, wow, this is super important, and so I thought I’d share the ones that resonated with me most, with you.

So let’s dive straight in.

Improved Mood and Brain Function

So when you exercise, you release these feel-good chemicals in your body called endorphins, and they lift your mood. So you get that benefit from walking 10K steps a day. If you’re going to do your 10K steps outside, in nature, then that’s great too. The release of those endorphins is going to reduce your stress levels and reduce your anxiety, which is brilliant as we don’t need that! Now walking generally, improves your cognitive function and memory, which is important for all of us, no matter what your age. And this will make you feel more focused, having less physical tension and feeling lighter. So that gets my vote.

Help You Improve Your Mobility

Now we all need this, again, as we’re talking about improving your joint health. Now I’m someone who has a personal interest in joint health so I was really intrigued to read about this. I mean, you know walking generally is very good for you. It’s about the movement and how it releases all that lovely lubrication, that synovial fluid, in your joints, which is what you want. I was interested to read that specifically around knee joints, walking 10K a day can help to reduce pain, the type of joint pain that you often get with arthritis. And it increases your circulation. So that’s really interesting. Even if you don’t suffer from joint pain, you want to get into a groove of movement in your life that is going to help prevent joint pain, which this actually does. If you do have pain, I know that when you’re in pain you’re thinking, well, I’m not going to walk because I don’t want to push it. Well, it’s one of those things isn’t it….walking is actually going to help you get out of that painful place. So wherever you can, if it is safe for you to do so, then please do.

Are you with me?

Helping You With Healthy Weightloss

This is of course as part of the other things you would do to lose weight. How does it do that? Well its going to get your heart-rate up which is fantastic. Its going to increase how many calories you burn. Also fantastic. So that will support you if you are intentionally trying to lose weight. Also, we often can take walking for granted. But it works specifically a set of muscles that have to be engaged to enable the movement of walking. Maybe when you’re walking you don’t even think twice about how your leg is naturally lifting up your foot and your ankle. Maybe you don’t think about the muscles, the quadriceps that are needed to ensure that your knee joint is moving. All these muscles in your legs, back, core, abdomen, glutes, these are all working and getting engaged. So it’s great for weightloss.

Helping You To Recover More Quickly

So what do I mean by that? Maybe you’re like me and yes you like walking, but you also like to workout, and you like your weight training, or your yoga or your Pilates practice, or all of those. Well walking 10K steps a day can really help to soothe your muscles and prevent soreness, so good quick recovery from a workout. And also it is stimulating your blood flow which is going to carry the nutrients that are needed around your body after your physical exercise. So that’s really important for recovery.

So many good benefits!

I’ve been aiming towards 10K steps a day for a little while now and it helps if you can monitor your step count. Whether you have an app on your phone or one of these things that I have on my wrist which can also monitor your heart rate. And I love it. I love how I feel. And its exciting. It becomes like a bit of a game. You’re checking how many steps you’ve done so far, and maybe its lunchtime and you’ve hit 5000 steps, and you’re thinking ooh where can I get some more steps. Your body is going to thank you for it, and if you are physically able to do so, you might want to check this out.

So there you have it.

I’d love to hear how you get on.