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A walking wortkout
WALKING at a steady, unhurried pace helps to lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Extending the length of your walk can reduce the possibility of premature death and diseases like cancer, medical research has found. Increased intensity brings further benefits.
HAND strength has always been tied to general wellbeing.
A person’s grip is also a biomarker for overall health owing to its links with many other healthrelated variables.
These include bonemineral density, nutrition, cognitive impairment, sleep problems and quality of life, according to Richard Bohannon, author of ‘An Indispensable
Biomarker for Older Adults’.
An earlier 2015 study, which monitored nearly 140,000 older adults over four years, found that a frail grip was related to higher incidences of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
The researchers also found that it foretold the likelihood of early death more effectively than blood pressure.
If walking is your principal exercise, turn it into a miniworkout, by bringing along kilo, or half kilo weights. Alternatively, swap these for filled up water bottles which can do double duty by keeping you hydrated later in your walk, suggested Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences professor, Dr Janet Dufek. She pointed out that it’s also possible to boost a walking workout by choosing a different terrain, especially a beach, since dry sand is an ‘extreme surface’ demanding much more effort.
