HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU WALK PER DAY FOR GOOD HEALTH.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU WALK PER DAY FOR GOOD HEALTH.

In this blog will discuss about how many steps you need per day to walk for optimal health. 

So often we hear that number 10000 steps a day.  As if they were some magical number, the reason we keep hearing that is because research has shown the people who walk more they are healthier, they live longer, less disease, lose weight better, they have lower incidence of Type 2 Diabetes, lower risk of cardio vascular disease, Dementia, and so on. But this research also shows that 2000 steps is a lot better than nothing, and it shows 10,000 steps is better than 5000. That means, for your health walking more is better than walking less. 

In some research indicates that, people who know how to gather a lifestyle to assume how their ancestors had, they probably take this upward to 30000 steps per day, that is how much our bodies are genetically designed for, that is actually how much we need. But the problem with all these research is they do not explain why number of steps or walking will do this ? What's magical about steps ? 

We need to understand how this stuff works. First, you should like and care yourself enough to want to take care of yourself the best way you can. Then you will understand why steps would help or what other types of activities would help us, and then you can start doing it right. 

First of all it is really not about steps, but it is an indicator of your overall activity. For lot of people it is the only exercise they get is walking, therefore if you walk more then you have higher overall activity. But really what this walking activity does is, it provides 3 things - 

(1) Brain Stimulation

(2) Circulatory benefits

(3) Hormonal benefits

Now, why would be brain stimulation be so important ? Because, every cell in your body and every tissue works on the principle - use it or lose it. Resources are precious in the body,so if we do not use something then why keep it around. So, basically muscles need tension, purpose of the muscle is to create tension, if we do that we get muscles, if we stop doing that or create less tension then we get Atrophy. Same thing is with bones, the purpose of bones is to resist gravity. If we have less gravity or less activity then it exposes us to the impact of gravity and get Osteoporosis. 

The purpose of the brain is to receive, process and produce signals. So, if we have enough signals then will have strong brain, if the brain gets less signals to process then brain will have less signals to process as a result brain degeneration starts to occur, that is another word for Atrophy, that is tissue shrinks and goes away. 

If you need to create more signal for the brain then you need to understand where they come from ?  The vast majority of signals comes from body movement. We have primarily three tissues - joints, muscles and tendons. These pickup different aspects of motion and tension and transmit to the brain as signals. We have over 300 joints in the body, over 100 of those are in the spine, but it dose not even end there, it's about receptor density, that is how many receptors we have per square inch, and we need a whole lot of them where it is important. Receptors increase in density as we get closer to the mid-line of the body and increase as we go from bottom to the top of the body. Basically the spine and closer to the head we get biggest bank of the receptors, and even though most of the signals are generated from movements, out of those signals more than 90% are generated from spine and specially from the upper portion of the spine. 

If you start understanding some of that, then it is not just how many steps you take, but it is how you walk. There is a huge difference if you walk actively creating a motion in the whole body, than staring at your phone and walking. It is not the number of steps, but how many signals are generated as you do it. 

What is happening as you walk - every person has different curves in the spine, the first one is on the back of the neck called Lordosis, as you get in to the chest the curve is on the other way called Kyphosis, and as you in to the lumbars then it gets on the other way again and finishes at the Sacrum. So, there are 3 curves, these act as shock absorbers, it's like a spring , as you are walking and bouncing a little bit then the brain and the head and the tissues are protected by this spring action. Therefore, your posture when you are walking is hugely important. If you have a proper posture and you are upright, now the curves are going to flow one into the other, they will cooperate and you will get more motion from each little bounce of the spring, resulting in generating more signals into the brain. If you don't have a good posture, you are walking hunched over and looking at your mobile phone then you are not getting nearly the same number of signals generated.

Another thing that matters with posture is intensity, if you are walking in a full range of motion and swinging your arms then you will have a rotation - a counter rotation between the shoulders and the hips, and now we are getting more motion into the body. 

The next benefit is circulatory. When you walk it increase your heart rate, increase your circulation, and when you pump more blood then you increase the oxygenation - deliver more oxygen and more nutrients in every cell of the body, and while the blood is doing that, it is also picking up more waste, so it is a form of Detox, it is assisting your body in it's detoxification process. 

But just how much blood are you pumping, what is the circulation? Your heart fills up with blood, and then when it's full it squeezes it back out, that is called stroke volume- that is roughly 70 ml , and on an average a person has a heart rate of 70 beats/minute, if we multiply that we get about 5 litres of blood circulating per minute, and that is also roughly how much blood a normal person has, that is the amount of blood being circulated when the body is at rest. But when you exercise, there is increase in circulation so the blood is coming back faster to the heart and filling up the heart faster and more, so if we fill it more then the heart is going to squeeze harder and more effectively, we can then actually double that stroke volume, with this increase in stroke volume and the heart rate, we could pump as much as 140 ml x 120/minute, ie. we could now with increase in stroke volume and increased heart rate we could pump as much as 17 litres of blood by simply walking. So, we see this dramatically increase by doing as simple as walking. 

There are more benefit than just heart pumping, there are other pumping mechanisms from exercise. When you walk there is a squeezing of the calves, there are veins in the calves that muscles squeeze and return the blood to the heart, this is very important mechanism, that is also why walking helps reduce varicose veins, because it helps vein pressure in the lower region. 

One more pumping mechanism is in all of the joints, every joint has something called synovial fluid and it is very important for the body to keep blood circulation separate from inside of the joints where the synovial fluid is, because the red blood cells could destroy the joints. Therefore the blood only gets outside the joints and the inside of the joint is very poorly oxygenated. So, the nutrients and the oxygen are diffused by a pumping mechanism, as we move the joint we are squashing that fluid around and that is how we get new fluids in and the old fluid and waste out. 

Cartilage has no blood vessels, but still we need to get some nutrients there. Cartilage heals very very slowly if at all, but still we need to get some nutrients there, this pumping action from motion is what drives that, it's like a 'Sponge-bob'. So, this is another good example from exercise or walking.

Exercise has also Hormonal benefits. It increases growth hormones, and also increases something called BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor), these two put together are essential for making new pathways in the brain, thus improving neuroplasticity. So, exercise or walking is good for brain health. 

Another benefit is walking reduce the dependence on insulin, walking will use up some carbohydrates that will reduce the need for insulin, but more so the cells, the muscles when they are active they don't need hardly any insulin to get the glucose into the muscles. An active muscle is much more insulin sensitive. Walking may not be the total solution, but one part of the solution.

Once we know about the above benefits from walking, then we should keep in mind that the most powerful way to address the above issues mentioned is HIIT (high-intensity interval training) or high intensity exercise, and fasting, that's what will bring the biggest change. But as I mentioned, every part counts, and walking absolutely helps. 

What is so special about walking ? Is there anything special ?

There is one special thing about walking, and that is called "Cross Crawl", we have a pattern - when we are walking we are moving one leg forward and the opposite arm forward at the same time. Why is that so important ? Because, it is something that is patterned into our nervous system, and it is one of the most fundamental and the strongest and most powerful patterns, it has a huge influence on how the brain is organised, and what scientists have found is actually that there is a strong connection between babies who don't get to crawl has increased risk for attention deficit, increased risk of Dyslexia, and for kids who don't get to crawl properly have poor body coordination, as a result are more prone to injuries. So, we can see it's mostly about creating signals at this point. 

If we want to create more signals, then there are certain factors that influence how many signals we create : 

Speed - the velocity of movement is highly influential. The Amplitude - if we make a small motion or a big motion it makes a big difference, and the number of repetition - if we do it once it is not very much, but if we are walking and doing 1000 repetitions then it starts adding up. Then it's complexity - if we do something very repetitive then it's not very challenging for the brain, walking is great for the reasons I mentioned above, but for creating more signal overall we need to do things that are complex. If we introduce variety then it's challenging for the brain, symmetrical, uniform and full arm swings during walking is one factor. One of the first signs of Parkinson's and Dementia is loss of arm swing, because their brains don't work well enough to create arm swing, it is a sign of brain degeneration. But we can also use as a therapy by swinging your arms more thus creating more signals and reinforcing those beneficial patterns.

If you want to increase the complexity in other ways, then you can walk on uneven terrain, because now when the ground is uneven then there is more adapting, more compensating and more adjusting for the brain to do. So, something like trail hiking or trekking will improve the complexity and if you get out in the wilderness where everything is completely unpredictable, where you have to step over things or dodge boulders, cross streams, or bend under things, now there is even more complexity. In addition to daily walking, 5 to 7 days of trekking at least once or twice a year is very much beneficial. Various other live activities like dancing, playing tennis or badminton where you have to move quickly in different directions and where you have to use lot of balance and agility are great examples to increase the complexity and thus increase signals. 

If you understand the above, then it is not just about strapping on around some step counter and getting to a daily walk of 10000 steps, but you can get lot of benefits with just fewer number of steps if you understand how this works. My recommendation is that you do something, because something is a lot better than doing nothing when it comes to exercise. The next rule is that more is better until it is not. So, it is very possible to over train and people really hooked on activity and they sort of get addicted to it, this is not what we are looking for. If you are over training then you might start feeling worn down and that's how you can notice if you pay attention to the body, if you are losing some of the spring in your step, start getting aches and pains, if you don't feel fresh going into workout, or if it feels you are not recovering properly, then it's probably time to back off . 

Every one has a different starting point depending on their level of fitness they are in, or body condition, but I thing minimum 30+ minutes per day of gentle to moderate activity would be something to try for. I have mentioned 30+ minutes because if you keep it at a low intensity like walking or hiking then you really can do it for hours every day and you are not going to wear yourself down. It all depends on your level of fitness and how much time you have on your hands, and your overall joint health and so forth, just use your common sense. But, at least 30 minutes per day, probably 5 to 6 times a week, do not strive for 7 times a week, unless it's a very gentle activity, because you do need to give your body some time for recovery. 

Then, I suggest add some body stretching, as stretching also sends massive amount of signals to the brain, but it also acts as a reset, as your body and your brain talks all the time, the brain gets a certain sense of the length of the muscles and tension on the tendons, when you stretch you are helping the brain to create a reset, or the brain gets back to base line and starts understanding the body better. 

Then you need to add some variety. As I mentioned about all the benefits of walking, but it is not very complex, it is not all that demanding, so you put walking as a foundation and add some variety. Add different hobbies that you enjoy doing. 

Please put your valued suggestions and opinion about this blog on the comment section below.

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