Walking uphill brings many more benefits than just walking on a flat surface, improving our endurance
Walking uphill brings many more benefits than a simple walk on a flat surface, improving our stamina and preventing the onset of health problems.
We know that walk it is good for physical health and our mental well-being: it is a moderate physical activity that nevertheless allows us to burn calories and keep fit; improves our breathing capacity and our stamina; allows you to distract yourself and relax your nerves if done in a natural area or in a park.
Further and much more important benefits can be obtained by walking (or running) on a slope compared to a simple walk on a flat surface. However, it is not necessary to organize excursions in the mountain comma. It is also enough to take the stairs to the house or walk along urban roads with even a minimal slope. What matters is not the place but rather the training we make our muscles do by changing the terrain. But what exactly happens to ours to our body when we walk up an incline?
Index
It burns more calories
Walking on an inclined surface requires more energy and has a higher metabolic cost than on a flat surface. The walk on a flat surface, in fact, saves a lot of energy - that's why we can walk great distances on foot with a minimum calorie expenditure (about 100 calories are consumed every mile traveled). On the other hand, by starting to walk on an uphill surface our energy consumption increases enormously.
(Read also: To change your pace, try walking uphill! Benefits, how and when to start)
It strengthens the muscles
If the effort is greater, the training on our muscles will also be more intense. In particular, it is the whole posterior chain - buttocks, muscles of the spine, calves and ankles - that benefit from a nice walk on an incline: these muscles already play an important role in supporting our standing movements and allow us to sit down and lower ourselves. to the ground. If trained correctly and constantly, they improve our posture, reduce the risk of falls and fractures (especially in the ankles), improve the overall well-being of our body.
A study conducted in the United States shows that a healthy posterior chain is necessary to counterbalance sudden movements and physical exertion and is essential for muscle development and for the prevention of trauma and fractures. In addition, it supports joint flexibility and improves movement control.
Train more (and better) than a run
It is not necessary to run at breakneck speed to improve our physical strength: walking uphill (even at a moderate speed) allows you to get the same benefits as a good run. First of all, it allows to accelerate the heartbeat, the benefits of which are many: the muscles are reached by a greater flow of blood (and, consequently, of oxygen) and our physical endurance improves - it is almost as if the heart were also doing 'gymnastics'. and kept in training together with our legs.
In addition, hip and calf health will also improve. The calves are often underestimated during training in the gym, but walking uphill is an excellent exercise to strengthen this part of the body: a study reveals that walking on an incline activates the muscles of the leg much more than normal walking, improves neuromuscular function and is the perfect workout for anyone with hip weakness. Stronger hips and calves mean more stability, better blood flow in the upper body, better balance.
Make the walk a habit
How to keep motivation high during the walk sessions and thus improve your physical and mental well-being? There are many apps that help calculate the distance traveled and count the steps taken daily: setting yourself a daily goal can be a great incentive to continue this healthy comma habit and looking back at the goals achieved previously is a great way to continue to stay motivated. Even walking with a friend or family member can be an interesting stimulus to pursue this activity that perhaps carried out in solitude could be boring. Finally, if we are alone and have no one to share the walks with, we can be accompanied by music, which greatly improves sports performance, as we have also explained in this article.
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