Walking is the best form of exercise you can have to obtain better health and a fitter you and it will cost you nothing. It is a form of exercise which can be taken up by anyone regardless of age or physical condition providing you start off sensibly, as with all forms of exercise you are not used to doing.

The first steps to getting healthier should be taken slowly and it is advisable if you do not exercise on a regular basis to start off with no more than a 10-minute walk most days of the week. This can then be gradually increased to walking 3 times a day for 10 minutes or twice a day for 15 minutes at a time. There are many ways you can fit this into your daily routine without too much trouble; just consider when and where you could alter your routine to walk instead of taking the car or bus.

The benefits of walking are numerous to your health and wellbeing and simply by altering your routine and walking 30 minutes or more each and every day you can:

* See an increase in your overall fitness and the tone of your muscles
* Feel good and look better
* Find that your level of energy increases
* Feel a lot less stressed and are slower to start feeling stressed
* Find that your pattern of sleep changes and you sleep better and feel more rested on waking
* Begin to reduce the risk of heart disease
* Reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer
* Find that depression starts lifting and you don’t feel down as easily as you once did
* Your outlook on life in general and the way you deal with things changes for the better
* You lose weight and look better
* You find that your muscles, joints and bones are stronger
* You reduce the risk of developing diabetes

You can start gaining all these and more benefits simply by increasing the amount of walking you do per day and being more active. In order to gain the best health and fitness from walking you should aim to walk at a moderate pace, a moderate pace means that while you shouldn’t be over exerting yourself you should be walking faster than strolling along. This means that while you are walking, you should be able to hold a conversation without getting breathless and your temperature should rise a little, but you shouldn’t be sweating to the extreme.

Not only will you feel better and look better once you have been on your new regime for a while, you will feel many more benefits health wise and be well on the way to leading a more productive, happier and healthier way of lifestyle.