«Every walk makes you slim,» says a saying. This also applies to walking. According to a US study, it is apparently even healthier if you head for a specific goal – for example your workplace.
Gulsah Akar and his team from Ohio State University assumed in their study that any type of walking is beneficial to health. «And that’s true, too,» explains the author of the study in the journal «Journal of Transport and Health». «But walking with a specific goal seems to have an even bigger effect.»
Walking with a goal gives a healthier feeling
Above all, people who deliberately walk distances every day should feel healthier themselves. This was the result of the evaluation of the approximately 125,885 available test person data. The study participants were between 18 and 64 years old. They gave an assessment of their personal health status and also explained how much they walked each day and where they went.
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A clear advantage of routes that were associated with a task is that they can be integrated into everyday life. At the same time, such «purpose-walkers» should on average walk faster than people who just strolled. Specifically, the former should be able to cover 4.3 kilometers per hour, while simple walking usually takes place at 4 kilometers per hour. Footpaths to a defined destination are usually longer.
Recommendation of the researchers
Akar and colleagues suggest employers encourage their employees to walk. The possibility of using gadgets to determine the distances covered by employees should also be considered.
People who live too far from work to walk can walk at least part of the way. Motorists can park their car in a parking lot further away and walk as much of the rest as possible. If you use public transport, simply get off a few stations earlier.
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Walking with a purpose: also suitable for private purposes
In addition to work, the researchers define other «trip purposes» as health-promoting. These include, among other things, going to the supermarket or inside the home, for example when cleaning. Incidentally, in another article, FITBOOK reveals how many calories you burn off doing household chores. So it’s twice as worth it!