The Walk of Life: 24 Benefits of Walking

Posted on by Mischelle Sandowich

Metaphor_ BreathDire Straits understood the foundational metaphor of walking as an expression of life — and they sang about it.

There’s just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, you do the walk of life [1]

But, man never invents true metaphors, we only discover them. God has written hundreds (maybe millions) of metaphors into the very fabric of human existence. Some we have the joy of discovering; others He has clearly told us about in the Bible. Recently I started a series of the ten greatest metaphors of life — the first was The Breath of Life. Interestingly, walking was not one of the 10 I had intended to write about.

Yet, as I was preparing to write this post, I realized I had made a mistake. Walking is among one of the greatest metaphors for life. So I suppose I will have to make it eleven (or more).

A Child’s First Steps

Have you ever considered why humans value the first steps of their children? When a child it born, the first thing he or she does is breathe the breath of life. Next the child needs nourishment to survive. Soon the child begins to crawl. However, if a child crawled its entire life — it would indicate that something was wrong with the child’s development. Tests would be done, physical therapy, and maybe even surgery would be done in order to get the child walking.

Walking is a fundamental part of human life. Those who can’t walk,  would  do anything lawful to regain that ability.

Walking is how we move from task to task each day. It’s how we move to the dinner table. How we get out to the garden. How we get from one place to another. It is what made these words so important for history when man first walked on the moon: “One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.”  And walking was the primary mode of transportation from city to city for millennia. Read about transportation in the Bible here.

With the invention of cars, it is no longer necessary to walk from city to city — or even to the grocery market as once was normative. As a result the amount of walking has declined dramatically. This can be a detriment to our health. On the upside, we can easily reverse this by making a point to do regular walking for exercise. If a person does nothing else for exercise, walking is a must to keep the body healthy.

Here is a list of benefits of walking daily according to one of my favorite online doctors [2]:

  1. Add 7 years to your life
  2. Decrease risk of COPD
  3. Reduce risk of coronary heart disease
  4. Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels
  5. Improve blood lipid profile
  6. Maintain healthy body weight
  7. Lower risk of obesity
  8. Enhance mental well-being
  9. Reduce risk of osteroporosis
  10. Reduce risk of breast cancer
  11. Reduce risk of colon cancer
  12. Reduce risk of type 2 diabetes

Take off your shoes while walking under the sun and you may get these additional benefits [3] (maybe this is why the Amish are so healthy):

  1. Better sleep and help with sleep apnea
  2. Decrease muscle and joint pain
  3. Improve respiratory conditions
  4. Decrease symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
  5. Help with PMS
  6. Easy hypertension
  7. Improve energy levels
  8. Improvement in immune system
  9. Level heart rate
  10. Reduce indicators of osteoporosis
  11. Improve fasting glucose levels
  12. A dose of healing sunshine 

Read more about these study based benefits of walking.

If you are not getting your daily dose of walking in, get started now. Here’s how:

  1. Go to your closet
  2. Put on comfortable clothes
  3. Find a good pair of shoes (optional) and put them on
  4. Walk to front door
  5. Open it
  6. Walk outside
  7. Set your timer for at least 20 minutes
  8. WALK somewhere interesting
  9. Come home
  10. Smile

Next: Little Secret: Jump Your Way to Good Health

Return to: Biblical Health Study

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[1] Dire Straits, Walk of Life.

[2] http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/09/11/daily-walk-benefits.aspx

[3] http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/09/11/daily-walk-benefits.aspx


Disclaimer:

Reformed Health exists so you can take control of your own health and be all that God has designed you to be. The information shared on Reformed Health is the sole opinion of the author and is not meant to diagnose or treat any illness. None or our claims have been evaluated by the FDA or any other government organization. We are not medical doctors, nor do we have any medical doctors on staff. If you are having a health emergency, please call 911, contact your doctor, or visit a local emergency room. Always consult your doctor before engaging in any new exercise regime.

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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.


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