With the arrival of spring grows the desire to leave the house and breathe pure air. Instead of taking the car, try to enjoy a healthy walk of at least 30 minutes at a brisk pace. This simple physical activity, in addition to being at no cost, will help you keep the line but not only. In fact, as a recent research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine explains, walking every day also keeps depression away. Therefore, walking improves both physical and mental health.
Choosing green corners of your city is a great way to enjoy every nuance of the landscape. Walking is a sport that has recently been rediscovered in the United States and is the basis of all fitness, but above all it is enhanced for its potential against stress. From a technical point of view it is a perfecting of the natural movement of the walk, a spontaneous and natural gesture that we are all able to do, but which we tend to use less and less.
Our psycho-physical well-being resides in a perfect balance between mind and body. However, this balance is constantly threatened by the intense rhythms of daily life and often most of our work takes place exclusively on the mental level. This involves the need to resort to a specific motor practice to restore our well-being.
Here are some of the benefits of walking outdoors in nature …
1) Calm Anxiety: The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health has published a study on the positive effects on anxiety arising from contact with nature.
2) Fortify The Immune System: Nature with its sounds, its perfumes and the physical contact with the natural elements, brings our senses to refine, becoming more active and receptive, lowering the levels of cortisol in the blood (the hormone of the stress), decreasing the heartbeat and blood pressure, with positive effects for the whole organism.
3) Remains Problems: Following the physical improvements of the body, the mind tends to remove the problems making them less nagging and, at the same time, tends to see the concerns of every day with greater tranquility so that they can be dealt with peacefully.
4) Regularizing The Breathtaking: Walking in contact with nature allows us to regulate the breath, which instead in moments of anxiety and fear tends to be short, superficial and breathless.
5) Improves Vitamin D: Vitamin D helps to reduce inflammation and helps strengthen the immune system. It is very important to spend time in nature and in the open air in order to fill up with vitamin D.
6) Nature Improves Creativity: A 2012 research conducted by Ruth Ann Atchley proved how nature manages to influence the creativity of those who live it, with cognitive increases of up to 50%. One of the main causes of this amplified creativity lies in the greater concentration you can find in a wood, in the mountains or in any uncontaminated environment.
7) The Quality Of Sleep: Going away for a few hours during the week from urbanization and living in a pristine natural environment helps regulate hormonal functions and regulate the inner clock responsible for regulating the rhythms of waking and sleep.
Practical Advice For Those Who Want To Start
It is good, if you want to practice walking, follow some important precautions …
1) Purpose Real and Not Impossible Objectives
To start you need to proceed gradually by stages and levels. In any case, it is advisable to follow the old rule of slowing down or stopping when the breath becomes labored.
2) Preparing with Stretching
It is good to prepare yourself with some stretching exercises (stretching of the muscles) both before the walking session and after. Also take care to take care of your posture, because the walk must be fluid, harmonious and elastic if you want to have benefits.
3) Drinking Santa Croce Water
Drinking water during and after training; eat foods rich in sodium and potassium (bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, milk, rice, chicken meat, peas, lentils, almonds, spinach).