Walking to Relieve Joint Pain
How much are you Walking?
Walking can be a great way to increase your daily activity levels. The recommended number of steps is 10,000 per day, do you come close to that? Is pain holding you back? - the good news is you can get started at any level and even increasing steps around the house will help your legs to get stronger.
The Ways Walking Improves Health
- Low impact - literally anyone can do it. Carrying an injury, bit of extra weight or even coping with a different illness. Walking is still something you can start doing to improve your general wellness.
- Heart - walking has been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke. It helps lower levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol and helps to reduce high blood pressure.
- Regular walking reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes by 60% and reduces risk for some cancer types by 20%.
- It supports weight loss - that extra movement added into your day. Increase your pace and you can burn almost a ⅓ more calories over walking at a slow pace.
- Recent studies have also shown its benefits in maintaining brain health, preserving memory.
- It's free - apart from the shoes on your feet walking doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Step out your front door and you have your track waiting for you.
- Muscle toning - anyone who does a lot of walking will tell you that the legs, bum and tum feels more tones. Particularly on using hills, it really gets the blood flowing through these muscles too. Keep your posture upright and pull your shoulder blades closer together and feel the difference straight away!
- Boost your Vitamin D - In the UK we can all benefit from spending more time outside. Boosting your vitamin D with time spent outside is a great side-benefit.
- Getting out into daylight during the day has also been shown to get great effects on promoting circadian rhythm for sleep patterns and improving sleep quality when you are asleep.
- Bone Density - spending time weight bearing helps to maintain bone density and strength which will mean that as you get older you will help prevent conditions like osteoporosis.
- Walking is a form of exercise and exercise causes your body to release endorphin's, those endorphins will cause you to feel happier. Studies have also shown that walking can improve symptoms of mild to moderate depression with the same effectiveness as anti-depressant medication. Walking gives you positive mental health - get your shoes on!
Walking increases fitness, lowers blood pressure and exposes you to Vitamin D in the sun.
Dogs are a great way to increase your miles walked, if you have one or if you can borrow someone else's!
Join a walking club or ramblers group led by an experienced walker.
Finding Walking Difficult?
Essential Wellness Knee Support
Relieves Pain, Protects and Supports Arthritic Knees. Assists in maintaining independence, shopping outings, prolonged periods of standing, a more comfortable gardening experience and many other activities.
Essential Wellness Ankle Support
Included Crisscross straps support the ankle further, providing the confidence to keep walking, gardening and driving, while still allowing some natural movement of the joint.