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Looking for a digital detox? We all need to get into nature every so often, and sometimes touching grass isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to head up a mountain with no signal and just embrace the slow life for a while. If you are in the mood for a trek into nature, you may as well do it properly. Luckily, Time Out has just curated a list of the world’s most gorgeous hikes for you to choose from. These are the sorts of views you usually only see as a computer screensaver, or while scrolling through your super-cool friend’s social media accounts ……..Continue reading….
By: Annie McNamee
Source: Time Out
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Regular, brisk exercise can improve confidence, stamina, energy, weight control and may reduce stress. Scientific studies have also shown that walking may be beneficial for the mind, improving memory skills, learning ability, concentration, mood, creativity, and abstract reasoningSustained walking sessions for a minimum period of thirty to sixty minutes a day, five days a week, with the correct walking posture may improve health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s fact sheet on the “Relationship of Walking to Mortality Among U.S. Adults with Diabetes” states that those with diabetes who walked for two or more hours a week lowered their mortality rate from all causes by 39 percent.
Women who took 4,500 steps to 7,500 steps a day seemed to have fewer premature deaths compared to those who only took 2,700 steps a day. “Walking lengthened the life of people with diabetes regardless of age, sex, race, body mass index, length of time since diagnosis and presence of complications or functional limitations.”
One limited study found preliminary evidence of a relationship between the speed of walking and health, and that the best results are obtained with a speed of more than 2.5 mph (4.0 km/h). A 2023 study by the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the largest study to date, found that walking at least 2,337 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases, and that 3,967 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from any cause.
Benefits continued to increase with more steps. James Leiper, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said that if the benefits of walking could be sold as a medicine “we would be hailing it as a wonder drug”. It is theorized that “walking” among tetrapods originated underwater with air-breathing fish that could “walk” underwater, giving rise (potentially with vertebrates like Tiktaalik)to the plethora of land-dwelling life that walk on four or two limbs.
While terrestrial tetrapods are theorised to have a single origin, arthropods and their relatives are thought to have independently evolved walking several times, specifically in insects, myriapods, chelicerates, tardigrades, onychophorans, and crustaceans. Little skates, members of the demersal fish community, can propel themselves by pushing off the ocean floor with their pelvic fins, using neural mechanisms which evolved as early as 420 million years ago, before vertebrates set foot on land.
Walking is also considered to be a clear example of a sustainable mode of transport, especially suited for urban use and/or relatively shorter distances. Non-motorized transport modes such as walking, but also cycling, small-wheeled transport (skates, skateboards, push scooters and hand carts) or wheelchair travel are often key elements of successfully encouraging clean urban transport.
A large variety of case studies and good practices (from European cities and some worldwide examples) that promote and stimulate walking as a means of transportation in cities can be found at Eltis, Europe’s portal for local transport. The development of specific rights of way with appropriate infrastructure can promote increased participation and enjoyment of walking. Examples of types of investment include pedestrian malls, and foreshoreways such as oceanways and also river walks.
The first purpose-built pedestrian street in Europe is the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam, opened in 1953. The first pedestrianised shopping centre in the United Kingdom was in Stevenage in 1959. A large number of European towns and cities have made part of their centres car-free since the early 1960s. These are often accompanied by car parks on the edge of the pedestrianised zone, and, in the larger cases, park and ride schemes
Central Copenhagen is one of the largest and oldest: It was converted from car traffic into pedestrian zone in 1962. Many people enjoy walking as a recreation in the mainly urban modern world, and it is one of the best forms of exercise. For some, walking is a way to enjoy nature and the outdoors; and for others the physical, sporting and endurance aspect is more important.
There are a variety of different kinds of walking, including bushwalking, racewalking, beach walking, hillwalking, volksmarching, Nordic walking, trekking, dog walking and hiking. Some people prefer to walk indoors on a treadmill, or in a gym, and fitness walkers and others may use a pedometer to count their steps.
Hiking is the usual word used in Canada, the United States and South Africa for long vigorous walks; similar walks are called tramps in New Zealand, or hill walking or just walking in Australia, the UK and the Irish Republic. In the UK, rambling is also used. Australians also bushwalk. In English-speaking parts of North America, the term walking is used for short walks, especially in towns and cities. Snow shoeing is walking in snow; a slightly different gait is required compared with regular walking.
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