One discussion which has been brought up pretty consistently is what kind of exercises are easiest to incorporate into your daily routine.
Two of the simplest methods which you will see people consider are walking more regularly, usually in the morning, or taking up yoga. There are plenty of comparisons to be made between the two, and they each have their own benefits and drawbacks that are worth considering.
Of course, you could easily do both, but if you just want to focus on one, then making up your mind can be a little more challenging. Because of this, we have put this guide together to compare walking with yoga.
This guide will assess what each of these activities entail, and what the benefits you get from each are. We are going to focus more on the practical and physical benefits, however, there are other considerations which can and should be made as well.
So, if you are struggling to pick between these two choices, keep reading to see our breakdown of each!
Walking
While walking is something we all do every day, doing it consistently has been seen as one of the best methods of maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
It is also one of the most efficient methods as well since it fits easily into whatever lifestyle we have since we can fit it in between other activities quite easily without having to take up too much extra time.
While one of the best ways to get a fresher start to the day is a morning walk, you can really do this at any time of the day and appreciate the area around you.
There are plenty of different benefits to walking more often, however, we have selected some of the most impactful which should be considered when picking between walking and yoga.
The Benefits Of Walking
While nowadays, we are constantly given the choice to get taken somewhere by a form of transit, it is easy to also choose walking for a lot of journeys as well.
We also spend a lot of time sitting every day in modern life with a lot of people having jobs where they are sitting down, so time walking can really be refreshing.
The energy you lose from walking can also contribute towards weight loss, especially if you were usually relying on other methods to get around. The faster you walk, the more calories you will burn, so if you want to go on a faster walk, this can be just as effective.
Another benefit related to the previous point is that walking is also great at limiting your cholesterol levels as well.
And, while cholesterol at a certain level can be beneficial for the body and something that you need, if you have levels that are too high this can lead to dangerous effects like an increased risk of strokes and disease.
Walking alongside other aerobic exercise is one of the best ways you can maintain your cholesterol levels.
Even if you are just doing a 30 minute walk at a good pace this will help with maintaining your cholesterol levels. Something that people often do not consider when it comes to the benefits of walking, especially if you are doing longer walks, is that they will increase your stamina.
While you are walking your energy will be getting used a lot faster so you will need to breathe more oxygen. If your lungs are needing to pump all of this extra oxygen, they will start to increase their capacity and this will help with your stamina.
This will also help in preventing too much fatigue when you are done as well. These are not all of the benefits, like walking aids in increasing your bone health, building up your calves, and working against arthritis, but these are the main benefits.
Yoga
The goal of yoga is to be a form of exercise which will use all the parts of your body as well as improve your relationship with your mind as well.
Yoga is practicing all of the different postures, as well as proper breathing techniques, as well as more spiritual aspects as well. Doing all of this can have some amazing benefits, a lot of benefits which you cannot find when doing other forms of exercise.
However, one of the main drawbacks of yoga that holds it back from walking is that it is a little less convenient and does not have the instant practicality that walking does. However, its unique benefits definitely help it be a good comparison to walking which is well worth considering!
The Benefits Of Yoga
One of the main benefits of yoga is that it will help you with building up both your strength and your immunity a lot more than just walking would. It builds up your strength by using your own body weight which you are lifting using poses.
There are specific forms of yoga which emphasize this aspect of yoga, but even standard yoga helps you with becoming stronger as well.
Something which is incredibly important to overall health which is often overlooked, especially if you are younger, is the health of your joints, but this can be greatly benefitted by doing yoga. Yoga also helps with muscles and bone health as well.
No matter what you are doing in life, there is a chance that you could be living with weakened bones and joints, and there are muscles that can go underutilized and getting weakened.
This is where yoga comes in and helps you stimulate and train these parts of your body. Another benefit of yoga that is often overlooked is that it can aid you with weight loss.
While a lot of yoga poses are not as demanding as something like aerobic activity, yoga can help your body become more capable of weight loss through what it does to your body.
Since yoga is not as aerobic as other forms of exercise, you are also less tempted to eat when you are done doing a session which aids significantly when it comes to weight loss.
There are other benefits as well as the balance between physical, mental, and spiritual health, as well as the peace of mind you can get from practicing yoga. Yoga is also a great stress reliever, and the breathing techniques you learn are very useful!
Summary
Hopefully this guide has given you all the information you need to decide whether walking more or yoga will be a better choice for you.
As you can see that while there is some overlap with their benefits, they also have plenty of unique benefits from each other that makes the choice more significant and worth considering.
However, what we recommend is trying to find a way to incorporate both into your life since the undue benefits to each of them are worth having in your life.
These are also not the most intrusive activities to indulge in either. Neither require much equipment nor an initial investment, and you do not really need to get any training.
You can attend yoga classes, but you do not have to, and a lot of information on yoga is freely available online, usually for free!
I created this website to help newcomers to yoga and enthusiasts alike, and to share our common passions for yoga.
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