How walking can benefit your mental and physical health
Enjoying the outdoors with friends and family this Spring
Walking is one of the most underrated forms of physical activity. It has numerous health benefits for both our mind and body, requires no equipment other than a sturdy pair of shoes, and best of all it's free!
With restrictions easing and new freedoms allowing us to socialise outdoors with friends and family, why not enjoy the benefits of walking, while exploring the great outdoors.
We caught up with AXA Health to discuss how walking can help you feel good. Plus as a special offer for Daily Mail readers, AXA Health are offering a FREE £100 M&S gift card* when you join their Personal Health plan.
How does walking benefit your mental and physical health?
Whether it’s walking the dog, with friends around the local area or with a family member somewhere further afield (following government guidelines), walking helps contribute to a healthier you, your way.
Walking regularly is shown to have numerous benefits for our overall physical health. It can help to reduce our risk of several health conditions.
Walking is also a great way to help develop and maintain our muscle mass and strength in our lower body. This is particularly important as we age as it can reduce the risk of falls.
There’s also good evidence that walking can improve symptoms of depression and low mood. In fact, researchers have found that walking more than twice a week, for more than 30 mins each time over ten weeks has real benefits for mental health1.
Exercise in general reduces levels of the body's stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators2.
How much exercise should I be getting a week?
As a guide, the NHS suggests that we do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week. For example, this could be brisk walking (walking at a pace that gets your heart beating faster, but you can still hold a conversation) for 30 minutes, 5 days a week.
Or you can even break it up into shorter bursts of 10 minutes, if that works better for you.
Special offer for Daily Mail readers
As one of the UK’s leading health insurers, we can give you some peace of mind. We’ll help you get the diagnosis and treatment you need, so you can get back to the things that make you feel good as soon as possible.
Plus, as a special offer for Daily Mail readers, we’re offering a FREE £100 M&S gift card* when you join our Personal Health plan. So you could treat yourself to some new trainers for your walks, or maybe even something that just makes you feel good.
As standard, you’ll be able to access:
Over 250 hospitals within our Directory of Hospitals, with more than 36,500 recognised consultants and other practitioners.
Extensive heart and cancer cover and care, depending on your medical history.
Full in-patient and day-patient hospital fees covered (on specialist referral).
We can cover you for new medical conditions that start after you join (as with any health insurance, there are some rules about what we can cover, and the options you can choose – which we’ll explain in full).
To find out more, give our team a call on 0800 022 4477^ or visit mailfinance.co.uk/healthinsurance.