Walking is a quintessential part of life on campus. By looking at the pedometer on my iPhone, I found that on a typical day of classes I average around 9 miles of walking, and I am not alone. Every day I see thousands of students out walking to classes, to dining halls, or just taking a casual stroll. Not only is walking the most effective means of transportation on campus, but it also could have great health benefits for students and faculty. Walking has been found to have surprising health benefits.
https://nextlife8.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/walking.jpg
For example, walkers were found to have significantly less risk of heart disease. The benefits of walking on heart disease were found to be even better than running, as walking decreases your chances of heart disease by about 4.5% more than running. Also, walking is a good form of exercise. Running clearly trumps walking in terms of calories burned and aerobic intake, but briskly walking has been found to be a surprisingly good workout. Walking also puts less strain on your heart than running. When doing intense exercise such as running for a prolonged period of time, your heart chambers over-expand, causing micro-tears. If you repeatedly experience this, you can actually develop scar tissue on your heart and be more prone to heart disease later in life. Walking, and exercise in general have significant mental health benefits as well. A brisk walk has been found to release endorphins, the chemical in our brain that make us feel good. The endorphins released from a brisk walk have been found to have the same effect as an antidepressant for people with mild depression. Other benefits of walking are the improvement of circulation, bone density, and muscle strength.
https://nextlife8.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/walking.jpg
Overall, walking has too many significant health benefits to pass up. So next time you find yourself sitting at a bus stop waiting for the next Blue Loop, keep your health in mind and get walking.
Sources:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/is-it-better-to-walk-or-run/?_r=0
http://www.prevention.com/fitness/how-walking-healthier-running
https://www.tescoliving.com/articles/8-reasons-why-walking-is-great-for-your-health
http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/exercise/workouts/walking/wow-of-walking.php
Hi Wesley,
I am a fellow walker, so reading you say that it is a good form of exercise and maintaining good health is going to be my new excuse to skipping the gym once a week (Jk…not really). I walk everywhere, like literally. Especially on campus, where the buses are either unreliable or slower getting you to your destination than walking. The cool thing about your article was that I didn’t know that walking provides the same affect as antidepressants do to people with mild depression. Which brings into question if there is a correlation between exercise and how good/less sad you feel? Maybe look into that.
Hi, this is a topic that is totally related to college students here at Penn State. Like you, I walk everyday all around campus, I rarely take the bus because it is time consuming and crowded. Whenever I am running outside or at the gym, I question if what I am doing to by body is actually harmful or helpful? Sometimes, my joints and heart hurt more so after running and I ponder if walking would have been equalling as beneficial. A statistic that always seemed sketchy to me was that running and walking burn the equal amount of calories. Because calories burned is what so many people focus on, I decided to look into this matter myself. Here is a link to an article explaining that. http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn
This website also gives a chart to explain how to calculate how many calories you burn per minute/mile in running or walking, it was really helpful!
I can relate very much to this as my legs feel like noodles after walking across campus 2 to 3 times a day. I have never been in a situation where I’ve had to walk nearly as much as this and I certainly never went on walks for enjoyment back at home. As much as I dread these long walks I am starting to realize they are really good for me. I have been eating more food and less healthy than usual yet my weight has not gone up. I think I owe this to the distances I’ve been walking. Luckily, we don’t have to run to class most days, unless we sleep through our alarms, because this article says walking might be even healthier while being much less tiring.
http://www.prevention.com/fitness/how-walking-healthier-running
Hi Wesley!
I completely agree with you on walking. I am a freshman this year. And my dorm is in the pollock. But most of classes I chose is at Forum. And these classes are not together, so they separate the time pretty bad every day. So basically every day I have to walk back and forth from Pollock and Forum. So I found out walking is a really good exercise. I found out walking not only can help people get a healthier body but also can help people lose weight. Because I used to study in a small high school, so everyday I barely walking to much. So it makes me gained a lot weight. But when I starting walking in Penn State, I found out it makes me feel vey healthy. And here is a link I found why walking is great for healthy. https://www.tescoliving.com/articles/8-reasons-why-walking-is-great-for-your-health
Nice article, i really like that you point out something that everyone does and how healthy it is for us. It makes me think about my first two semester where i live on campus because everything was pretty much walking distance. However, since i moved out and use the bus more frequently, i feel like i am walking much less and also feel less fit. A healthy lifestyle is indeed with one where you walk a lot. It is funny because the hype of pokemon Go has also helped people to go walk more often. I bet you already heard or read about it but here’s the link.
http://www.dailydot.com/debug/pokemon-go-workout-exercise-perk/
This is a great post for being relatable to Penn State students! I’m a freshman this year, and I’m quite proud to say that I have yet to take the bus to any of my classes, even when they’re all the way across campus. Despite the heat, I find the walking to be very relaxing, and it makes me feel good to know that it is a healthy activity to partake in. I’m not very partial to intense exercise, so the fact that walking has such positive health benefits makes me even more happy to take the time to walk places. This campus would probably be one of the fittest in the country, if Berkey weren’t right down the street from most people’s dorms! But walking shouldn’t be the only thing us students rely on for exercise and staying healthy, so I found this article about 101 other ways, including walking, to be healthy in college!
Hi Wesley,
I am a fellow walker, so reading you say that it is a good form of exercise and maintaining good health is going to be my new excuse to skipping the gym once a week (Jk…not really). I walk everywhere, like literally. Especially on campus, where the buses are either unreliable or slower getting you to your destination than walking. The cool thing about your article was that I didn’t know that walking provides the same affect as antidepressants do to people with mild depression. Which brings into question if there is a correlation between exercised and how good/less sad you feel?
This a very important topic and relevant in every students life. At Penn state we are given a minimum of 15 minutes between classes. This is plenty of time to be able to walk to class. Cardiovascular exercise is one of the most important things people can do for their health. Simple things like walking have a variety of benefits and it is not a strenuous task. Also walking helps the digestion process. It helps the food move out of the body. This may be something people don’t think about or don’t want to think about but it is important especially into the later years. Here is an article from Harvard about the scientifically proven benefits of walking. http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Walking-Your-steps-to-health
Hello Wesley,
I have always been told that people should do >10,000 steps a day to be healthy/if they want to get in shape and lose weight. I also was curious to look at my phone and see how many steps I do walking to class daily and it averages between 8-12,000 a day. I think this campus is so in shape compared to others and I love it! I’ve also heard walking is good for your heart and helps you improve your concentration. My dad recently started walking with a FitBit and has lost a lot of weight due to just walking- if he doesn’t get his 10,000 steps in or more, he will make himself walk late at night. I think more people should get into walking and find a new love. Here’s a link talking about how walking can improve your life in just 30 minutes a day- http://www.shelbynews.com/news/article_62af0145-a858-5c48-8dc2-27e3d805730c.html
Hey!
Glad you enjoy walking as much as I do! I really like walking, and when I lived overseas in Okinawa, Japan, my friends and I walked everywhere! A beach was always within walking distance, and then a sushi restaurant would be nearby, and from there we would walk back home!
I really enjoy checking the Health App on my phone to see if my daily average has gone up. I actually found an interesting forum that went on about how our phone app really doesn’t accurately log our steps. Too bad a fit bit is way more expensive than I could afford! I’ll still use the app, regardless of how accurate it may or may not be.
Anyways, walk on!
-Dana