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Let’s be honest, we’ve all been through a lot this year and aching for that one escape from reality into the refreshing nature. Whether you want to break your boring routine, get out of your house, or want to spend some more time in nature to feel relaxed, hiking can be a great way to change things. You don’t need to be a hardcore hiker who is sweating all day to reap the benefits of hiking. In fact, you don’t even need to hit the top hiking spots in your country to enjoy it. You can hike at any place, at any elevation, and for any number of miles or kilometres.

All you need to go on a hike is very little equipment, some basic skills, and all the enthusiasm you can get! Here are a few benefits of hiking for your mind, body, and soul.

Benefits of Hiking for Your Body

1. Hiking Improves Cardiovascular Fitness

One of the important benefits of hiking is cardiovascular fitness. Even a moderate one-hour hike can burn around 400 calories while strengthening your core and lower body. It also engages your core muscles in your torso and hones your balance skills. In a way, hiking is like doing lunges over and over. It strengthens your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves while improving your cardiovascular fitness.

2. Hiking gives you an All-Round Workout

Unlike your standard exercise routines like walking, running, squatting, etc that move you either forward and backward or up and down, hiking forces you to move in every way possible. This way you strengthen your muscles and tone your whole body.

Benefits of Hiking for your Mind

1. Hiking Makes your Mind Sharper

Hiking doesn’t just make your body feel good but also keeps your brain in top shape. When you hike, blood flows to your brain, carrying oxygen and important nutrients. According to research by Harvard, this increases blood flow to the brain improves connections between neurons in the parts of the brain that is responsible for memory and cognitive function.

2. Hiking Reduces Anxiety and Depression

Hiking and connecting with nature improve mental health and well-being. Hiking has been proven to reduce stress levels, reduce anxiety, and depression by calming the mind. Hiking allows you to zone in on your breathing to a part meditative state that works as an instant mood booster.

Also Read: How to spot signs of depression and help your loved ones

Benefits of Hiking for your Soul

1. Hiking Builds Community

The utmost thing we crave now is human connection. With months locked inside our home, staring at the computer and mobile phone screen all day, we just need to be with real humans. Hiking can forge new friendships, build healthy groups, and provide social support. It is a great way to build a healthy community. This is one of the greatest benefits of hiking for your soul

2. Hiking Makes you Appreciate Life

Hiking is your chance to let yourself loose in nature, recharge, and connect with yourself. Being one with nature for even a few hours makes you appreciate nature and life. So, no matter what, at the end of the day, you’ll always return home with a renewed appreciation for mother nature and your life.

Hiking improves your overall health and wellbeing. Physically, mentally and emotionally, hiking can help you in many ways. So, if you want to revive your mind, body, and soul, try hiking and reap all the benefits of hiking.

According to the CDC (Centre for Disease Control), USA, Walking is the most popular physical activity in the world to get your heart rates up. It is reported that 6 out of 10 adults walk at least 10 minutes a week. Unlike other types of exercise, walking just needs a good pair of shoes and motivation to get moving. Unfortunately, despite the benefits of walking, and with more than 145 million adults including walking as a part of their fitness lifestyle, it doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. However, there are some serious misconceptions and myths present around walking. So, before you think walking isn’t just worth your time, take a look at these 5 common walking myths that you need to stop believing right now.

Myth 1: Walking is for people who can’t run

One of the most common myths about walking is that walking is just a routine for people who can’t run or workout daily. This is a completely false statement. Walking is a good exercise for everyone who likes to improve their fitness and heart health. There is no evidence that suggests running is better than walking. In fact, it has been found that people who walk regularly reduced cholesterol levels, stress levels, and prevented the onset of diabetes and heart diseases effectively than runners.

Read more: House walking!

Myth 2: You need to hit 10,000 per day to reap the benefits of walking

So, you’ve just started walking and your fellow walkers are asking about your step count and your fitness tracker is buzzing you to hit 10,000 steps- We’ve all been there. Even though walking 10,000 steps per day is associated with lower blood pressure and improved heart health, all that matters is the effort you put in it. The ‘10,000 steps holy grail’ is just an arbitrary target.

Myth 3: Walking doesn’t help you lose weight

This is one of the biggest myths you’ll hear about walking and despite what people say, walking works does help you lose weight! Of course, a daily walk in your neighbourhood with your pet isn’t going to move the needle on the scale. You need high-intensity walks and moderately paced walks to burn those extra fats. You can even include HIIT (High-intensity interval training) into your walking workout can help you lose weight.

Myth 4: Walking must be a workout, always

Although intense walking has some eye-catching benefits, you can ignore the benefits of taking a leisure stroll. Regardless of your distance or speed, walking regularly has loads of health benefits ranging from reduced anxiety and a healthy heart. Health experts even suggest that taking a single walk can improve your mood. So, instead of always looking walking as a workout, just enjoy the moment!

Read more: 5 shocking weight loss myths

In today’s society, where most of us spend more than 12 hours on the office chair or couch, any movement is better than none, and walking is a great exercise to get you moving. You can do it anytime, anywhere and it’s a great way to improve your cardio endurance. But, be sure not to fall for these common walking myths.