Why is hiking good for your health

Like most cardio exercises, hiking helps reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even some cancers. Hiking is a weight-bearing exercise, which builds muscle mass and helps prevent osteoporosis. Hiking can help you manage your weight. It is a joint-friendly form of exercise that can keep arthritis sufferers more limber and mobile.

Being outside in the sunshine provides the body with vitamin D. For those with type 2 diabetes, hiking can possibly reduce, or even eliminate, your need for insulin. Talk with your doctor about how exercise may reduce your need for medication.

Awe is a powerful emotion that has many benefits , including improving your mood and making you feel more generous. It may be obvious that hiking is good for our physical and emotional health. But there is mounting evidence that it helps our relationships, too.

One reason is that many of us hike with other people, and exercising together can produce special feelings of closeness—and a sense of safety. But, even in less dire circumstances, having a friend along can be a lovely way to connect with another person in a setting free of other distractions. In one study , mothers and daughters who spent 20 minutes walking in an arboretum versus a shopping mall not only showed better attention during a cognitive task, but also had improved interactions with each other, according to independent raters.

Specifically, they demonstrated more connection and positive emotions and fewer negative emotions after walking in the natural setting. Other research suggests that exposure to nature can help our relationships by making us more empathic, helpful, and generous. What about hiking alone? For anyone who spends a lot of time caregiving for other people, it can be rejuvenating to let go of that responsibility for a bit and take to a trail.

David Strayer and his colleagues tested young adults in an Outward Bound program before and after they spent three days hiking in wilderness, and the participants showed increased creative thinking and problem-solving after the experience.

Some scholars believe that these benefits for creativity have to do with how natural settings allow our attention to soften and our minds to wander in ways that can help us connect disparate ideas that are swirling around in our minds.

Others suggest that the spaciousness and unpredictability in natural scenery somehow enhance creativity. Whatever the case, if being in nature increases creativity—which is tied to well-being—it might behoove creative types to spend a little more time on a trail.

Check out this great infographic. Physically, the benefits are numerous. Getting outside for even a short hike regularly can reduce your risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and help to prevent type II diabetes.

Hiking makes you strong. And it doesn't just work your legs. Clambering over uneven surfaces and navigating your way around rocks, fallen trees, across streams and over tree roots engages your core and works your upper body for a true holistic work out.

But the physical benefits are almost incidental to how hiking can contribute to your overall mental health and wellbeing. This isn't a 'get fit and lose weight in 30 days' post. It's people and it's about time we focused on more than aesthetics. Health is more than cardio and strength conditioning, and our New Years resolution reflects that hike more, worry less! Here are ten reasons hiking is good for your soul and why your should start hiking in Hiking clears the mind and reduces stress Our lives are busier than ever.

Nine to five jobs, full social calendars and everyday life admin is enough to keep us at a permanent level of stress below the surface.