Hiking is one of the best ways to enjoy nature. Hiking is one great adventure no matter in which part of the world you are. It’s not like other sports; it basically makes you enjoy beautiful sights while providing toning to your muscles and exercise to your body.

Hiking has various benefits with respect to mental, physical and spiritual health of an individual. In this post, I will cover what some of these actually are. If you haven’t gone for a hiking experience before, it’s high time you get yourself some nice hiking boots and start hiking!

1. Improved Heart Rate and CV Fitness

A cardiovascular fitness tells us about the ability of your heart, blood cells and lungs to provide oxygenated blood to your body muscles and the skill of those muscles to consume oxygen to create energy.

Regular hiking significantly increases your CV fitness levels empowering you to work out for lengthier period of time.

Hiking activity gives you mix of earth surfaces to deal with. These different surfaces drive you to move harder and work on your muscles in diverse ways. This is something you can’t practice in a gym. Hiking also aids to decrease your future risk of heart diseases.

2. Massive Muscle Strength

The hamstrings, quads and calves are the main muscles which are used for hiking. While you are on a hiking adventure, you will endure a pressure on all of these above mentioned muscles of your body. It really impacts them in a way that you gain a lot of strength and energy. It even makes your leg bones strong.

When you are hiking, your glutes will have to most of the work as they aid in providing support to your body weight and also the additional weight of your bag if you are wearing one.

3. Reduced Stress and Depression

Yes, benefits of hiking just not only impact on your physical wellness, it also works on your mental energy and strength.

A physical activity like hiking activates hormones known as endorphins into your brain. These hormones are also called ‘good feelings hormone’. They help you feel good and lift your mood up. You will be surprised to know that Endorphins can help greatly in relieving pain and fatigue, encourage feelings of happiness and joy. In short, if you are stressed out, hiking can be one way to cheer you up. So, put on your gear and go outdoors.

Fresh breeze, attractive surroundings, and natural fragrances can provide you a relaxed state of mind so it can be a form of mental therapy for you.

4. Reduced Weight

If you are a person trying to lose weight, hiking can be one interesting way for you to shed some pounds. Good news is, hiking burns way more calories than walking due to the uneven surfaces in hiking and obstacles on the way. If you are used to of walking daily, try out hiking and trust me you will see a difference in your weight loss rate. Hiking at a rate of 4.5 miles per hour burns about 500 calories and if you will hike with the speed of 2.5 miles per hour it will burn around 250 calories which is incredible!

5. Reduced Risk of Diabetes

Hiking demands a lot of strength and energy. The body utilizes glycogen as energy fuel for your body. When you don’t work out enough this increased amount of glycogen in your body disturbs the sugar levels in your body which increases the risk of you getting diabetes. An exercise like hiking make you work harder on your muscles, which keenly eradicates glucose from your blood and utilizes it for energy.

Hope you liked this article. If you have more health benefits of hiking in mind, do comment in the comment section.