There are many reasons why people enjoy hiking outdoors, and once you are bitten by the trail-bug it can be hard to resist your next outdoor adventure. Hiking is great exercise, but did you know there are more to the health benefits of exercise than meets the eye? Here are five ways that hiking benefits health, and more reasons for a ramble in the countryside!
#1. Great Exercise
One of the most obvious health benefits of hiking is that it is good all-round exercise that anyone can do.
Have you ever felt the effect of reaching the top of a steep hill? That heart-pumping, out of breath feeling shows what a great cardio workout hiking can be. Not only is this good for heart health, but it can help lower blood pressure and increase the efficiency of the lungs.
Any exercise is good for the body, but hiking has added benefits. Unlike using a treadmill or exercise bike, walking on trails brings uneven surfaces. You may have to hop over boulders, climb stiles, and more. This works all of the muscle groups in your body, including ones which otherwise see little use, and engages your brain to make sure you stay upright!
#2. Improves and Maintains Mental Health
Being outside and spending time in nature has many benefits for mental well-being.
The act of walking outside can be meditative, helping us to focus on the present moment. This may help to relieve symptoms of stress and anxiety, as it provides relief from pressures of work and other problems in life. When you are outside walking in a natural environment, it makes you aware that the world is about much more than the bubble we live in at work and home.
Hiking outdoors can be a key benefit for those suffering with depression. Physical exercise helps release endorphins, which help relieve pain and stress, as well as increasing levels of dopamine and serotonin in our body, which cause the well-known “runners’ high” because they boost your mood and sense of well-being.
When done regularly, hiking may improve your productivity, outlook and attitude to life. Getting outdoors is a great way to escape life’s stresses, focus your thoughts and clear your head of the mental chaff which modern life has a habit of piling on us.
#3. Boosts Creativity
Researchers believe that all the extra mental stimulus and information bombardment we are faced with daily overwhelms our brains resulting in reductions in our cognitive resources, limiting our creativity and problem solving abilities. Getting out into nature away from these stimuli restores our depleted attention circuits, freeing up more brain power for creativity (so leave the gadgets at home!).
#4. Improves sleep quality
Walking or climbing over uneven terrain uses 28% more energy than walking over flat ground. You are also removing all the new age stimuli that we often expose ourselves to throughout the day and right before bedtime (phones, computers, TV's and the like). The result? Better sleep!
#5. Longer lifer expectancy
While people are busy searching for the elixir of youth, you are lucky enough to have found it in hiking. In fact, one of the benefits of hiking is that it helps to increase life expectancy by a couple of years. How cool is that?
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