Benefits of Brisk Walking

A lot of times it feels like if you’re not dripping with sweat and about to collapse after a workout, then you haven’t really had a successful workout. But new research is coming out that supports the most basic of exercises: brisk walking. The New York Times Magazine recently ran an article hailing the activity as the single best exercise a person can do.

The benefits of brisk walking include more than just better heart health: a recent study concluded that brisk walking can improve prostate cancer outcomes.

Researchers at the University of California, San Fransisco observed 1,455 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer that had not spread beyond the prostate. These patients reported their physical activity by questionnaire about 27 months after their diagnosis and prior to any evidence of recurrence or second treatment.

117 events were recorded, including biochemical recurrences (elevations in PSA), secondary treatments, bone metastasis and prostate cancer-specific death. They found that men who walked briskly for at least three hours a week had a 57 percent lower rate of progression of disease than men who walked at an easy pace for less than three hours a week.

Walking can be included in everyone’s routine: whether it’s a brisk walk around the neighborhood after dinner or choosing the sidewalk over your car when you go to the grocery, walking could be the best thing you do for your body and your health.