With many people looking to undertake walking holidays this Summer, including the West Highland Way, you may be considering joining in and experiencing your own hiking trip in Scotland. Even though it’s an everyday activity, it’s extremely beneficial for your overall health and can even help to ward off illness and diseases. If you are planning any hiking holidays Scotland is the ideal place to come!
At EasyWays, we are all too happy to share with you why hiking holidays Scotland based are so important! We believe that exercise should be fun, exhilarating and flexible which is why we’re so passionate about walking. You can do it anywhere – from a short walks to the shops to hiking for a week!
Health experts give walking such rave reviews because, as a lifestyle exercise, it makes big changes to your life and body without you having to change your daily routine too much. Walking to work, to the shops or even getting off the bus a couple of stops earlier are all examples of how you can implement walking to your everyday life without feeling like a huge project or change!
Since it’s so easy and simple to fit into everyday life, people who walk find it easy to keep it up and regular exercise is exactly what you need to improve your health. Make sure you prioritise finding great hiking holidays Scotland based.
What are the benefits of hiking?
Well, burning only 500-1000 calories a week reduces the risk of premature death by 20-30%!
For an average weight person, this is around 6-12 miles per week! Think of all the ways you could easily fit in extra miles to your routine. Do you usually take the lift? Consider taking the stairs. That’s an easy way to add to your weekly mile count and the more you do it, the more you’ll feel inclined to take the stairs elsewhere!
Walking helps you against a range of diseases
There are many benefits of hiking, in fact, walking is a strong fighter against so many diseases. Including cardiovascular disease and the risk factors associated such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. Cancer, and in particular, bowel cancer and breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
As well as this, it can improve musculoskeletal health – examples include osteoarthritis and lower back pains. It improves mental health as well and can contribute to overall mental wellness!
Considering how easy it is to implement walking to your everyday life, it’s worth doing so when you can be avoiding health dangers such as these!
How much walking should you be doing?
The UK Department of health guidelines are fairly straightforward and offer helpful insights into how much exercise you should be doing:
- Adults should be doing around 30 minutes a day of moderate intensity physical activity four to five days a week
- Children and young people need to exercise for at least an hour every day
Of course, this doesn’t mean your 30 minutes has to be done all at once so you can build up your amount over the course of a day. 3 short, ten minute walks of 10 minutes or more should be sufficient!
There are of course plenty of other ways to exercise but we prefer walking for obvious reasons!
What does moderate intensity activity mean?
Everybody has different levels of fitness so unfortunately, there’s not an exact answer to how fast you need to be walking to reach moderate intensity but a good indicator is how it feels for you while you walk.
Look out for:
- An increase in your breathing rate
- An increase in heart rate – can you feel your pulse?
- An increase in body temperature – have you worked up a little bit of a sweat?
If you’re struggling to get going, imagine you’re running late for a train you have a ticket for and you have to rush to the station to make it! Purposeful walking can be extremely motivating and energetic!
Remember that in order to succeed with a healthy walking lifestyle, you don’t need to overdo it. It’s not a competition and your walking needs to be consistent enough that you can sustain it over minutes without feeling exhausted at the end of it .
Are you looking for great hiking holidays Scotland based?
Have fun along the way, EasyWays the hiking holidays Scotland provider, could be exactly what you’re looking for! We offer a range of walking holidays across Scotland and the Lake District for everything from beginners to more seasoned walkers. Walking holidays in Scotland are always great, but made better with EasyWays!
We can offer advice, insights and help you book the walking holiday that best suits you, your group and your fitness levels. Whether you choose to go self-guided or fixed price, we’d love to help! There are many health benefits of hiking. Also, interested in our other walking routes in Scotland? Look at our last post to see how you can experience some Scottish culture!
Get in touch today to find out more about EasyWays, the holidays we provide and what we can do for you. We look forward to hearing from you!
