It makes you physically fitter, mentally stronger – and you can still chat while you do it. About the underestimated benefits of walking
March 31, 2024, 2:41 p.m
Just go for it. © Richárd Bellevue/plainpicture
It was a walk in the park, as people like to say when you mastered a task or exam without any problems. The language image shapes the common idea of going for a walk that is not very strenuous. Because of this supposed effortlessness, walking – especially in today’s fitness and sports ideology no
pain, no gain – the image of not having any major effects on the body and mind. Only that’s not true.
Even a walk brings gains. In this respect, a hike is one thing above all: underestimated. “If you define health as physical, mental and social well-being according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is little more useful and healthy than going for a walk,” says Otmar Weiß, head of the university course in psychomotor skills at the Institute for Sport and Movement Science at the University of Vienna. “Walking has an optimal effect on all three levels of well-being,” says Weiß.
