Lesson 1: The Benefits of Walking
This lesson reviews the multitude of health, fitness, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits that have been found to result from a consistent walking program. Many of these effects are interrelated.

Overview - Walking as Aerobic Exercise
Walking is classified as an aerobic exercise. Aerobic means "with air" and aerobic exercise is defined as continuous, moderate exercise using the muscles of the thighs and hips. Our muscles use oxygen, combine it with sugar or fat and produce the energy necessary to make them move. The aerobic energy system is the most efficient method our body has to produce energy.

The whole process starts with the muscle. Most of the time the muscle is at rest or on "idle," but when we begin to exercise, there is an increased need for fuel. There is a small amount of fuel that is already stored in the muscle which allows us to go into immediate action. But fairly quickly we need to replenish our supply. So the muscle begins making demands on the rest of the body.

The most obvious commands are sent to the heart and lungs. The lungs bring in the oxygen, the oxygen gets loaded into the blood, and the heart pumps it out. The circulatory system pumps this oxygen-rich blood to the muscles. The muscles accept the delivery, load up on oxygen and combined with some special enzymes, break down sugar and fat to replenish the energy supply (ATP).

When we exercise regularly, the body responds by strengthening every system involved in this process. The heart becomes more efficient at pumping blood and our bodies become better able to saturate the blood with oxygen. Our circulatory system develops more capillaries to help with blood transport. We increase our enzyme production to help with the energy production. Our muscles become better able to use oxygen that is delivered. Our livers become more efficient in producing glycogen to be stored within the muscle. The benefits go on and on. We not only become more highly-tuned engines, we become better engines.

The benefits of regular exercise affect us both at rest and during activity. Let’s use the heart as an illustration. The heart is a muscle. At rest, our heart pumps approximately 5 liters of blood per minute to different parts of the body. This is called our cardiac output. Cardiac output is a product of stroke volume (the amount of blood we pump per beat) and heart rate (beats per minute). When our heart muscle gets stronger, our stroke volume increases. The result is that our non-exercising heart rate decreases, which is less stress to the heart. When we exercise our heart rate will increase. Our maximum heart rate does not change as we get fit, but because our stroke volume has increased, our cardiac output will improve to better supply oxygen to the muscles. When we are through exercising, our heart rates will more quickly return to resting levels.

The exquisite quality of our cardiovascular system allows our bodies to be most flexible in ...

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