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Does Walking Make Your Legs Stronger?

By Madhu Babu

Walking is a great way to tone your legs and make them stronger. The catch is you need to do it regularly. Medium to brisk walking and relaxing walk thereafter 5-6 days a week helps in burning even amount of calories and help in strengthening your leg muscles. It is a major fitness tip to men recommended by experts due to even paced nature in which it brings about healthy changes compared to running, which is highly injury prone and has bone related issue on the long run.

Walking soothes your muscles and relaxes your body thereby improving blood circulation. It burns out any fat deposits in your calf and thigh area. This helps the muscles to flex and strengthen over time with regular walking. Although most of us find ourselves on our feet at some point during the day, research shows we don't walk as much as we used to. Hence it is important to make sometime of the day dedicated for walking as a form of physical exercise.

Walking is gentle and low-impact and it's one of your body's most natural forms of exercise. It's safe, simple, all fully able-bodied people know how to do it, and the health benefits are numerous. By walking regularly we can improve the condition of our heart and lungs, work the muscles of the lower body. An average adult needs to walk at least 30 minutes a day regularly to be effective.

Stretching

Stretching

Walking early in the morning helps in more ways than you can imagine. It stretches your cramped and cold muscles and pumps in oxygen to help it recoup from previous day and night. It relaxes the muscles and rejuvenates them as you walk. The protein you burn while walking helps the leg muscles strengthen and firm up.

More oxygen

More oxygen

As you wake in the morning for your regular walk, you body would be craving for more oxygen, which makes you yawn more than normal. As you start walking, your body breathes and circulates more oxygen throughout. As your legs are more affected by walking, the body sends more to legs which aids in strengthening it.

Toning

Toning

Regular walking helps your muscles firm up and push out any fat deposited around it. When you reduce the bulky fat in your legs and calf, more precisely thighs because it attracts more fat deposit around leg, the loose muscles start to get firm and stronger. This will have a good effect on your overall legs as they start to tone.

Safe and even

Safe and even

Unlike running, which is associated with lot of injuries and not suited for all ages, walking can be performed as a form of physical exercise by all ages. This is because it is even paced and is not too harsh on your bones in your legs. Even brisk walking is soft on your knee and ankles. Since it is evenly paced and not abrupt and sudden burst of exercise, the health benefits are longterm and positive. Injuries associated with walking as an exercise are minimal and rare, mostly affecting ankle and some time cramps and in rare cases calf muscle tear.

Muscular strength

Muscular strength

You will gain muscular strength with walking but probably not enough for well rounded fitness of entire body. Muscles that get an extra workout in walking include the entire back of the leg, calves, hamstrings, and gluteus. You will use muscles in the back of shoulders when you swing your arms. Walking provides other physical benefits and prevents dangers associated with other types of exercise. Walking is a low-impact exercise, which puts less strain on bones and tissues

Story first published: Sunday, December 22, 2013, 15:08 [IST]
Read more about: fitness health