Walking Day

National Walking Day is the first Wednesday in April every year

National Walking Day is celebrated annually on the first Wednesday in April. This holiday celebrates one of the easiest ways to get into shape; walking! Studies have shown that walking 30 to 60 minutes a day can radically improve your health in a variety of ways. The American Heart Association often sponsors this day due to the many positive effects walking can have on your heart. In fact, the entire month of April is dedicated to finding new ways to increase your exercise with Walking Day being the kickoff event.

In today’s world, people have begun spending more time at work and looking at a screen than ever before. As a whole, we have become less active, which increases our risk for a variety of diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Making simple changes to combat this rising trend can have long lasting impacts. Studies have shown that every hour of exercise adds almost two hours to your life expectancy. Physical activity has multiple benefits such as relieving depression and improving your sleep. Adults should spend at least 150 minutes performing physical activity a week. Children need about 1 hour of physical activity every day. However, over half of people don’t make exercise a regular part of their routines. Studies have shown that walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise for people to stick to, hence, the creation of National Walking Day to help encourage new habits that might become lifelong.   

History of National Walking Day

Since the beginning of time, walking has been one of the most basic actions of human beings. Archaeologists have found that when humans were hunters and gatherers we would often walk far distances to hunt our prey. Walking is what humans have always been best at. Humans are the slowest runners out of all the animal species, the worst swimmers, and can’t fly without help from jet engines. Walking is the only thing every human can perform naturally. In the Victorian era walking was so popular that it was a spectator sport. Those watching would place bets on how long the walkers could walk and how fast they could walk. This is why race walking is still an Olympic sport to this day. Walking has always been a major facet of humans and often written about in literature and other forms of entertainment. A major facet of many journeys whether spiritual or a journey of self discovery is the walk it takes to get there. Walking across the United States is considered one of the highest testaments of human strength and one of the most impressive. While you don’t have to walk quite that far in order to celebrate this holiday, you can take the first steps. Maybe grab some friends and go for a walk to catch up, your half hour walk might turn into an hour walk and maybe even become a daily habit.