Hiking is a sport that gives you many benefits, and while these benefits aren’t much known they sure are good for you. Throughout this small article we will let you know what benefits you can gain by hiking.
It benefits your overall health:
Hiking benefits your health a lot. Not only does it helps your muscles and joints to avoid atrophy, it also gets your blood pumping and your lungs working, giving you increased stamina levels if you practice it enough. It also boosts your cardiovascular performance and lung filtering capacity, which can extend your lifespan and helps in avoiding heart attacks, strokes and other nasty problems.
We were programmed to do it:
The human body evolved to be a hunter gatherer, and we were expected to walk 8-9 kilometers a day – that’s a lot. Nowadays we sit all day, and our health suffers from it. Hiking helps your body by being an activity your organism was made to do – and this boosts not only your health, but your mind too. A well regulated mind makes for a well regulated spirit!
It doesn’t cost you much:
The equipment of a lot of sports may be expensive, but the equipment required for hiking is not. You only need a good pair of boots and that’s it – the rest of the available equipment will help you if you want to get serious, but to start the boots are enough!
You enjoy Nature and yourself:
Some time alone with nature can have a purifying effect, and reaching the top of a mountain, breathing that fresh air and gazing upon the cloudless sky is the best anti-depressant there is. Being in harmony with nature has showed to be a strong panacea for a lot of the present afflictions of mind and spirit, and hiking is definitely an activity that will get you those benefits.
It can be done your whole life:
Hiking is an activity that can be done your whole life, and the benefits of it only get better and better as times move on. Elders that hike regularly have best odds at living more than those that sit quietly in their homes – and this is not a surprise. So, if you have the passion for hiking you don’t have to worry about getting too old for it as you do in other sports.