Even a few minutes’ walk each day can transform your health, body and mind. Why haven’t you started already? 

Improve your circulation and heart rate

Walking increases your heart rate and blood begins to flow faster through your arteries delivering more oxygen to your muscles, which, in turn, helps arteries retain elasticity. Regular walking reduces the build-up of fatty plaque on arteries’ inner walls that can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Your resting heart rate will decrease because, with less plaque and flexible arteries, your heart doesn’t need to work as hard to pump blood through your body. Just 30–60min most days of the week is all you need to do. 

Maintain muscular and bone strength

Use it or lose it. From your mid-thirties, bones and muscles are more quickly broken down than built up. Walking can turn the tide on this process and prevent osteoporosis and sarcopenia (muscle loss). Walking is a weight-bearing activity: you’re on your feet and muscles and bones are working against gravity. This activates cells that repair and build muscle and bone. Muscular strength in your legs and body core helps you stay upright and avoid falls. 

Burn fat and prevent disease

Too much body fat can lead to chronic inflammation and a raft of conditions, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cancer. A daily one-hour walk will help keep you slimmer and protect your health – lowering your risk of diabetes by 30 per cent. Glucose is produced from food which powers our cells, but if we’ve eaten too much and there’s an excess of glucose in our blood, it can be converted into fat. 

Walking uses glucose and promotes its storage so it doesn’t end up as fat. And if you’re taking in fewer calories than you’re burning, you’ll lose fat as it’s converted into glucose for energy. 

Improve your mood 

Studies have shown that a daily 30-minute walk can reduce symptoms of depression by 36%. This is because walking prompts the release of endorphins – those feel-good hormones. Striding out and increasing blood flow to the brain also influences stress response, mood and motivation systems. Memory formation is helped too, which is why walking reduces the risk of dementia.

Better sleep

Walking literally tires you out and increases the pressure to sleep that naturally builds throughout the day. That makes it easier to fall asleep and can reduce wakefulness in the middle of the night. A good night’s sleep supercharges the benefits of walking, giving your body time to restore and improve its function.

Think about the immediate benefits – how you feel better after every walk.

How to stay motivated

Motivation is crucial for a challenge that lasts a year.

Walking 1200km over 12 months may be a long-term goal, but the benefits that can be gained immediately will help you stay the course.

“We keep going with whatever challenges we set because we get something out of them, because  we feel immediate benefits,” says University of Otago sport and exercise sciences associate professor Elaine Hargreaves.

“It’s about being able to identify that you feel better after every walk. That’s going to keep the  motivation going.”

Another tip is to make walking a habit. Just as we associate brushing our teeth at night with going to bed, Hargreaves recommends combining walking with a cue.

That could be going for a walk after lunch every day. Over time, the connection between lunch and walking becomes stronger.

Joining a group can also make it easier to get motivated, Hargreaves says.

A social network of like-minded people doing the challenge, like the Walk1200km Facebook group,  is great. It validates the activity, and signing up to do the challenge with others keeps you accountable.

Top tips
→ Make walking a habit, like brushing your teeth.
→ Join the Walk1200km Facebook group