Fresh air: the benefits of walking in the forest, in the mountains for adults and children. Why being outdoors is so good for your health

Many in the daily bustle, in an effort to lead healthy lifestyle lives are limited to visiting sports clubs and careful selection of food products. Meanwhile, the most ancient "doctor" familiar from childhood - fresh air - remains undeservedly forgotten.
Every caring parent knows that their baby needs to spend several hours outside. If you do not follow this rule, the consequences in the form of constant crying, insomnia, health problems, will not be long in coming. Why, growing up, do we devote less and less time to walks, when our body, gradually aging, needs special care and care more than ever? Isn't it time to remember the benefits of walking on fresh air and incorporate them into your daily routine? Almost immediately you will feel a surge of strength, Have a good mood, and after a few weeks - a noticeable improvement in well-being.

Five reasons to walk outdoors in any weather

1. Improvement of the emotional state. Pay attention - not a single person comes unhappy after a walk. Walking is wonderfully soothing and relaxing and is excellent tool from insomnia.
2. With the help of a walk, you can calm the mind, put your thoughts in order. Problems begin to seem less complicated, there is an easier and clearer perception of life.
3. Oxygen saturation of each cell has a positive effect on metabolism, strengthens cardiovascular system and immunity.
4. Walking tour - effective exercise for muscles and joints. Over time, a beautiful posture appears, which makes women even more attractive.
5. Another bonus of outdoor activities for women is beautiful colour faces.

How do you know if outdoor activities are right for you?

• If you have depression or chronic fatigue, fresh air will return you to vigor, energy and good mood.
• When experiencing stress. Walking will make your thoughts light and clear and calm your nerves.
• At frequent illnesses and weak immunity.
• If you have overweight, walking will help to quickly cleanse the body of toxins and toxins.

So, there are enough reasons to walk in the fresh air. And do not neglect this, indeed, miraculous means of strengthening health. Time spent on it useful activity, is a significant investment in yourself and in your future.

Do you suffer from joint pain, heart problems, stress, depression or obesity? Because, according to the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, walking helps reduce the risk of all chronic diseases. In fact, most health professionals will prefer brisk walking over running as it is a low-stress, heart- and joint-friendly exercise. Read on to discover 20 Health Benefits of Walking if you do it every day - no matter if you're 8 or 80!

1) 45 minutes of walking can help strengthen and tone leg and back muscles and prevent loss muscle mass 2) 30 minutes of daily walking can help you lose weight, improve metabolism and gain lean muscle mass 3) 30 minutes of interval cardio can help lower blood pressure and relieve you of shortness of breath

1. Promotes Heart Health

Walking helps improve heart health. Irish scientists report that walking - best exercise for sedentary individuals, especially adults, to reduce the risk of heart and vascular diseases. In another study published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, researchers confirmed that men and women 65 and older who walked at least 4 hours a week had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. So remember to walk at least 4 hours a week so that stroke and other heart troubles bypass you.

2. Promotes weight loss

Walking is a great exercise to lose weight, it's so effective it's hard to imagine. American scientists conducted an experiment in which obese patients walked with each other (a concept called the "walking bus") to where they usually traveled around the city public transport. After 8 weeks, weight measurements were taken, and it turned out that more than 50% of the participants lost an average of 5 pounds. You may also find it a good idea to go somewhere back and forth instead of getting into the car.

3. Regulates blood pressure

Walking can also lower blood pressure. Researchers from medical university Wakayama, Japan, conducted an experiment involving individuals with moderate hypertension, in which 83 patients took 10,000 steps every day for 12 weeks. By the end of 12 weeks, they had a significant decrease blood pressure and improved stamina. Even if 10,000 steps a day is beyond your power, walk at least 60 minutes every day, and this will certainly benefit your pressure.

Learn more without the use of pharmaceutical drugs.

4. Fights cancer

Cancer has claimed over a million lives. One of the causes of cancer is a sedentary lifestyle, and this is where walking can help you. Scientists have found that by going for a walk every day, you can reduce body weight and remove a few pounds of fat, thereby reducing the risk of cancer. It turned out that it is not worth doubting whether walking is useful for those undergoing cancer treatment, as it softens side effects chemotherapy. It may also reduce the risk of breast cancer.

5. Improves blood circulation

Believe it or not, walking can make you smarter by providing your brain with the right amount of oxygen and glucose to help it function better. It also lowers LDL cholesterol levels, which clog arteries, increasing the risk of stroke. Thus, blood circulation, the functioning of the brain and cells are improved.

6. Reduces the risk of diabetes

A sedentary lifestyle leads to an exponential increase in one of the most common diseases - diabetes. For people with type 2 diabetes, scientists recommend taking 3,000 to 7,500 steps a day, as well as sitting less and being more active overall. Walking every day can help control blood sugar levels, which in turn can help prevent type 2 diabetes.

7. Strengthens bones

As we age, bones become more fragile. However, there is good news: daily walks can help you strengthen them. This low-stress exercise prevents density loss. bone tissue thus reducing the risk of osteoporosis, fractures and injuries. Since bones are the foundation of the body, stronger and healthier bones mean good posture, endurance and balance. Walking can also prevent arthritis and relieve associated pain.

8. Strengthens muscles

With age, a person loses not only in bone, but also in muscle mass. Walking can help you here too, because it strengthens and tones muscles, and also prevents muscle loss. Regular walks can strengthen the muscles in your legs and back.

Poor digestion can lead to intestinal discomfort, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and even colon cancer. Therefore, it is very important to support digestive system in order. To do this, you need not only to develop healthy gastronomic habits, drink more water, but also walk regularly. Walking after eating is great. It will help you lose weight and also aid in digestion.

10. Strengthens the immune system

The body's immune system must always function properly to fight infection, disease, and death. Walking is a great way to boost your immune system. Walking for at least 30 minutes a day can help activate immune cells such as B cells, T cells, and natural killer cells. This stimulates faster production of white blood cells, which allows the body to heal faster.

Dementia or dementia is a neurological condition characterized by a gradual loss of memory and cognitive functions. Over time, it can deprive you of the opportunity to do household chores and make you completely dependent on others. Walking at a moderate pace every day can help prevent dementia, improve memory, and make an older person more confident.

12. Increases lung capacity

Walking can also increase lung capacity. When you walk, you breathe in more oxygen than when you are at rest. This increased exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide can affect lung capacity, which also contributes to endurance and ability to exercise. The best thing about it all is that you don't even have to run for it. It is enough just to walk at an average pace for 60 minutes (with breaks, of course!).

13. Slows down aging

A study of 17,000 Harvard graduates found that students who walked for at least 30 minutes each day lived longer than those who were sedentary. Walking is sometimes associated with the activation of the enzyme telomerase, which is responsible for maintaining DNA integrity and is an important factor in the course of aging, but walking in any case has a beneficial effect on all problems associated with age-related changes in the body.

14. Helps produce vitamin D

Walking in the morning is a great opportunity for the body to produce vitamin D. It is very important for strong bones, prevents cancer, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. So The best way recharge it - go out and walk for 10-15 minutes under the morning sun, without worrying that the body will be harmed.

Learn more about and how to get enough of it.

15. Relieves stress

Walking can help reduce stress levels by improving blood circulation, which in turn provides cells with oxygen and nutrients. It also stimulates receptors in the nervous system and reduces the production of stress hormones. Regular breathing while walking will also help you cope with anxiety.

16. Uplifting

In several scientific research Scholars have argued in favor of the idea that physical activity may help prevent depression. Walking is highly recommended by doctors and psychiatrists as a way to cheer up. So, if you're feeling down or sad, take a walk, get some fresh air, realize how helpful it is - and you'll feel better.

17. Improves memory

Japanese scientists have found that walking has a beneficial effect on the memory of elderly patients. Physical exercise help increase the size of the hippocampus, while a sedentary lifestyle reduces it, leading to memory loss. Try to walk every day, it will significantly improve your memory.

18. Increases Productivity

Regular walks can also make you more active and energetic. This, in turn, can increase your productivity. Walking is good for everything, whether it's school, work, memory, flexibility or response to various stimuli - it will all change for the better.

19. Gives a creative boost

Walking can help you in case of creative stagnation. They calm the nerves and relax the brain. When you're out and about, you're not overwhelmed by deadlines and the need to satisfy someone's expectations. This helps to start thinking strategically and put everything in order. So if you're stuck with a problem, take a walk!

20. Helps to make new acquaintances

Walking can help you make new acquaintances, and perhaps new friends who will inspire you to walk every day, because you will want to meet them again. You can also go to social events. By the end of the day, you will be charged with positive energy and peace.

From this list, it is clear that walking can improve your health in many ways, but what preparations do you need to make to start your daily walks? Let's find out what you might need.

What do you need to start walking?

To start walking, you need a few basic things. Here is the list:

• Walking shoes
• Comfortable clothes
• bottle of water and energy bar for long walks
• If you decide to walk to the office, put on your office attire and a pair of comfortable shoes that you can change into at work.
• Raincoat
• Motivation is absolutely essential for at least the first 5 days.

Below you will learn how to keep your motivation for daily walks at a high level.

Many parents underestimate the benefits of walking for a child, but walking is very important for a person, especially for children.

A walk in the air is the best way to improve health, and hence the prevention of colds in children and adults. In addition, walking helps increase the child's appetite. Improves metabolism, nutrients are better absorbed. Thanks to walks in the fresh air, a natural cleansing of the body occurs, the upper functions function better. Airways. Walking is the simplest and surest means of hardening a child.

Walking with a child is necessary at any time of the year and in any weather, and the duration of the walk should be adjusted in accordance with weather conditions.

IN summer time years, the child can be in the air all day. The ideal condition would be to rest in the country, where there is an opportunity to hide from the rain and the scorching sun. It is even better if there is a pond nearby, and if not, you can always replace it with a children's pool, in which kids love to splash so much. Here you have entertainment, and occupation, and hardening.

Being outdoors is especially useful for small children, because thanks to sunshine the body is saturated with ultraviolet light, which is responsible for the production of vitamin D in the body. This the best remedy in children.

Also, walking is an excellent means of preventing visual impairment in children. After all, on the street, where there is so much space, the child constantly has to move his eyes from nearby objects to objects far from him - this is a wonderful exercise for the prevention and treatment of myopia, as training takes place eye muscles, and as a result, strengthening of vision. A relaxation exercise is very useful when you can just calmly look into the distance.

No less useful and winter walks. Winter frosty air is best saturated with oxygen, entering the body, it stimulates brain activity. Thanks to winter walks, the physical activity of the body increases, sleep improves. Especially useful walks at temperatures below ten degrees. Such air is especially clean and the likelihood of catching an infection is much lower. You probably noticed that the surge viral diseases most often happens when frosty weather is replaced by a thaw.

And for the walk to be fun and useful, parents should know.

Of course, adults should regulate the duration of a winter walk, make sure that the child does not overcool or overheat. Feel the baby's neck from the back. If it is dry and warm - everything is in order, if it is wet and hot - the child is hot and sweaty, then you need to go home. If the neck is cool, the baby is cold and should be insulated. It is necessary to properly dress the baby for a walk.

Improves through walking physical development child. Each walk is accompanied by motor activity of the baby. During outdoor games, training takes place various groups muscles, coordination of movements develops, as well as speed of reaction, strength, endurance, the will to win.

learning various types movements, the child actively engages mental operations, which contributes to his mental development. Research recent years prove that the higher physical activity child, the faster his speech develops.

Also, in nature, the child has the opportunity to observe the world around him, the phenomena of nature, learns to establish cause-and-effect relationships, for example, why a snowflake melts on his hand. It is very important to teach a child to see the beauty of the surrounding nature, natural phenomena. All this contributes to the development mental processes: perception, attention, memory, imagination.

Spend while walking with children developing games on the knowledge of the seasons, natural phenomena, animals, plants.

Remember, a properly organized and conducted walk will ensure your baby's health and harmonious development.

In the conditions of the modern rhythm of life, constant haste, stress, tension, crisis, we often forget about the benefits that fresh air brings. And only when we get to nature on weekends, we remember it and cannot breathe in pure, natural oxygen!

Meanwhile, every person needs fresh air almost from birth. Think of young mothers who walk daily with their children in the park. The duration of their walks takes approximately 2-3 hours. That's how much time you need to be on the street and adults. But how many of us follow this regulation?

As a rule, our daily walks in best case are limited to trips to the garage, to the bus stop and to the store for groceries, household appliances or anything else. Young people, in addition, sometimes still go on dates, to cafes, nightclubs or restaurants. On weekends, we try to get out into the street with the children, but not always and not everyone succeeds. Thus, not everyone is 3 hours a day on the street.

It is not surprising that we subsequently suffer from diseases of the lungs and blood vessels, fatigue, irritability and heart failure. After all, the benefits of clean air for human body essentially invaluable. Unfortunately, most of us understand this only in old age, when it is too late to restore strength.

Fresh air is good because it has a beneficial effect on the body in a complex - improving the work of several systems at once. First of all, it comes to the aid of the brain, psyche and nervous system- strengthening memory, relieving absent-mindedness and negative feelings. Admission required volume oxygen into the body also has a positive effect on the activity of the heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract and vessels. Life expectancy increases, many diseases disappear.

The most accessible, efficient and convenient way saturation of the body with oxygen daily walks. It is best to do them in places of green space, for example in a forest or in a park - which will allow you to restore vitality, the required level of energy and vivacity in the shortest period of time.

Fresh air and walks

The high efficiency of hiking has been experimentally confirmed by American scientists. The researchers decided to compare what has a better effect on brain function - walking or doing stretching exercises. The age of the subjects ranged from 50 to 80 years. The people were divided into two groups. The first group had to walk in the fresh air with a frequency of 3 times a week, from 30 to 45 minutes. The second is to do muscle stretching exercises according to exactly the same schedule.

A year has passed. With the help of funds modern diagnostics The scientists compared the brain volumes of people in each group. It turned out that the brain of "pedestrians" grew in volume by as much as 2%. And most of all, this trend concerned the areas of the brain responsible for memory and activity planning. In the representatives of the second group, the brain, on the contrary, decreased by 1.5%.

It can be concluded that daily walking prevents brain aging. Optimal results are achieved when they are used in combination with memory exercises, logical thinking, oral counting, speed reading, etc.

How to take walks?

Walking in the forest, in the park or at least in the square allows you not only to fully enjoy the fresh air. It is also movement, which means strengthening the legs, developing muscles, and finally, getting to know and communicating with nature, its unique beauty and picturesqueness!

If you don't know how to allocate time for walking, use the following recommendations:

1. Walk to and from work at least part of the way. Go shopping on foot. Lunch breaks use for walks in the park.

2. Meet friends outside or in nature. Spend time there with your loved one. Get out of town more often on weekends.

3. One more good way weekends are travel. A tourist trip to a neighboring village or city is not only a “dose” but necessary for the body environmental component, but also new experiences, interesting acquaintances and a lot of positive emotions!

4. So that you do not get bored walking on weekdays, find yourself a suitable outdoor activity or a corresponding hobby. For example, get a dog or take up photography.

5. And the last tip. Dose the load. Start with short walks. An interval of 15 minutes at first will be enough. Gradually, this time can be brought up to 1 hour. And then - walk in the morning and evening, a total of 2-3 hours a day.

Sitting within four walls all the time is harmful - you deprive yourself of connections with the outside world, and your body - oxygen, without which not a single vital process will take place in it. Ideally, an adult should devote at least one and a half a week to outdoor walks, and it is advisable for children to spend the same amount of time outdoors every day. The benefits of such events should not be questioned, and even emotional condition. Probably, there are few people who would return from a full-fledged walk in a bad mood.

A healthy lifestyle is especially fashionable today. But, following this fashion, many concentrate their efforts only on sports training and correction of the diet, but they simply forget that they also need to walk. Meanwhile, a calm and pleasant walk in a quiet place will bring no less effect than jumping rope, because in this case, breathing will also quicken and work will be activated. circulatory system. True, all this will happen in a milder mode than during training. They will be a great addition to walks - they should always be present on your table.

How can you lose weight?

More often you need to be in the air for those who want to lose weight. excess weight. And it's not even that in the process of walking calories are burned. There is an improvement in metabolism, the release of sweat becomes more intense, and this, in turn, contributes to the removal of toxins from the body. Of course, this refers to productive sweating, and not armpit hyperhidrosis and other pathologies associated with excessive sweating.

The entire musculoskeletal system of a person also receives a qualitative load. Muscles, ligaments, and joints are strengthened. By the way, you can additionally take it, which helps to restore their mobility. Hiking, according to the observations of surgeons, contribute to the formation of correct posture .

It is preferable to walk somewhere outside the city or in a park (square). In principle, any territory remote from highways and environmentally unfavorable zones will do. So, a walk in the vicinity of some chemical plant is unlikely to be beneficial. But the seashore is one of the ideal options.

Walk, walk - you will be smart!

But the beneficial effect of health walks affects not only physical form. According to scientists from the University of Illinois, this is a good tool for intellectual development. They conducted a series of studies of the brain and found that its activity is activated if a person finds time for forty minutes in the fresh air at least three times a week. Naturally, you need to not just sit on a bench near the house, but move. You can go jogging for health, or you can just walk. The speed of movement and rhythm, by and large, do not matter. Even leisurely walking improves the ability to reason. And those who are accustomed to lead sedentary image life, before occur age-related changes in the body, and their thoughts are often confused.

Walking helps to relieve irritation and stress, they can be a good cure for depression. In addition, it is in the air that you can get a powerful boost of energy. A long stay indoors usually results in physical weakness, syndrome chronic fatigue, decreased immunity.