Healthy Living: The Benefits of Walking at Work

Most office jobs keep people glued to their seats for hours on end. Often unavoidable, this necessity to work while sitting is the foundation of many sedentary lifestyles. Not only does sitting for extended periods of time have a negative impact on the body, it can also muddle up the mind. As more scientific evidence comes out revealing how damaging the sedentary lifestyle can be, more office workers are fixing the issue by adding a bit more walking to their daily routine. Learn more about how walking at work can help improve your health.

Walking Helps Strengthen the Body

It’s obvious that exercising more improves health, but one of the reasons why most people don’t start adding a walk to their work schedule is because they have a hard time believing that walking for 15 or 30 minutes a day can produce any major results. While walking won’t burn as much fat or as many calories as running, it will burn calories, boost the metabolism and maintain the body’s muscle. Walking also helps build stronger bones and reduces the risk of cardiovascular problems like high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.

It’s Good to Get Away from the Chair

Sitting down for extended periods of time, day after day, week after week, isn’t exactly what our bodies were meant to do. A huge part of the reason why sitting is so bad for the body is because it typically goes hand in hand with bad posture, decreased blood flow (particularly to the legs), unnecessary strain on the lungs and spine–and therefore a decrease in the amount of oxygen distributed evenly around the body. These things aren’t taking place as soon as we sit down. They build up over time–and can be prevented with a daily walk.

Walking Also Improves Your Mood

In addition to staving off larger health problems and preventing muscle loss, daily walking routines can also help improve mental health. All those things that benefit the body also benefit the mind, while simple things like a change of scenery, socializing with walking buddies or just getting out into fresh air can have a direct and immediate impact on improving how we feel during the day. A lot of it has to do with blood flow. Getting up and walking gets blood and oxygen flowing to the brain, improving focus while decreasing stress levels.

And Optimizes Your Other Workouts

Walking at work has the highest benefit for people who try to remain active outside of work. Many people try to compensate for sedentary lifestyles by hitting the gym on a regular basis. However, exercising outside of work to make up for hours upon hours of sitting in one place might not be enough. Simply put, sitting all day at work might cause more damage than high-intensity workouts at the gym can make up for. On the positive side, walking a few minutes every hour, or for 15 to 30 minutes at lunch, can make exercise outside of work even more effective. Whatever walking option you choose, remember to drink more water during the day.

If you’re tired of sitting at your desk all day and want an easy way to start improving your health, a short walk during working hours might be the solution for you. Find easy, slip-on shoes for work walking, fitness bands for stretching at home and fitness apparel to get you moving outside the workplace with products from LTD.