Benefits of Trekking – Unwind Your Soul by Taming the High Mountains on Foot
Traveling is not all about packing your bags, taking a flight or train, and arriving at a destination to spend a few days. It is more of finding your inner self amidst nature that remains dormant in the middle of the city life’s hustle-bustle.
When it comes to adventure travel, trekking is one of the options that hold the potential to unveil the best of nature and you. Being a Travel Blogger with trekking as one of my favorite activities, I have personally experienced how even a short trek into the woods can help emancipate your mind into the light of eternal peace and liberate your body of its city-dwelling inflexibility.
So here I am with a list of major benefits that trekking can offer you besides revealing the marvels of nature.
1.Overall Fitness Boost
From enhancing strength, stamina, muscular agility, to mental rejuvenation, trekking holds the key to renewing your overall fitness. Stepping over the boulders, climbing the difficult ascends, walking through the trails full of wilderness and hurdles, and crossing the wriggling mountain streams is what trekking trails challenge you with. As a consequence, trekking often improves cardiovascular functionalities and the metabolism rate. Hence, the body becomes agiler, fitter, and adaptable to the varying climatic conditions, thereby surging the immunity system’s strength.
2.Reduces Stress and Improves Breathing
Air is integral for breathing and what could be a better alternative to oxygen-rich fresh air for breathing. The high-altitude mountains and the surrounding wilderness offer the trekkers with fresh oxygen-rich air void of excess carbon elements and greenhouse gases. This, in turn, makes the trekkers feel fresh and breathe healthily. The majestic nature-frames composed of the snow-clad peaks, occasional green meadows, the hill blossoms, and the clear blue sky decked with pristine white floating clouds help reduce the stress level and aids in the process of mental rejuvenation. The pollution-free, high-quality air helps the body to act optimally and stay fit.
3.Live longer!
Research has shown that just walking 5 miles a week at a slow pace is enough to reduce your risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure by 31%. 5 miles is just 10,000 steps – so if you’re addicted to your Fitbit and find yourself pacing around at night to reach 10,000 steps, then well done – you are absolutely smashing that target!
Being active is also one of the key ways to reduce your risk of cancer. Exercise lowers the estrogen in your blood stream which is believed to be the reason why active women are around 30% less likely to develop breast cancer.
5. Strengthen your heart
Walking becomes a cardio work out when you push yourself to the point that conversation becomes more difficult. On the Tour on Mountain and Mount trek, some days involve ascents of 1000m and you will certainly feel out of breath on those! Cardio exercise is important for strengthening your heart, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.
4.Increase your metabolism
Just spending 20 minutes in any fixed position leads to a decrease in our metabolism and 4 hours of inactivity almost completely shuts down enzymes that metabolise fats! When you’re at work, it’s important to take regular screen breaks to combat this. Trekking can also improve your metabolism by building muscle mass in your legs. The more muscle mass you have, the greater your resting metabolic rate – for every 4.5lbs of muscle mass your resting metabolic rate increase by 50Kcal per day.
5. Burn calories!
For many people this is one of the most important health benefits of trekking! When you consider that taking your dog for a half an hour walk burns 100 calories, it’s easy to see the weight loss potential of trekking! we typically walk for 6-8 hours per day, over very hilly terrain! That means that we are almost burning our entire daily allowance of calories, which is a good thing considering how delicious swiss food is!
6.Strengthen your bones
Your bones require load to be placed onto them maintain their strength. Weight lifting is a good way to improve bone density, as is trekking with a ruck sack. Trekking has the added benefit of being a low impact way to exercise, which is useful for those who suffer with joint pain.
7.Improve your balance
Hiking on trails is an excellent way to improve your balance and mental agility. The uneven surface promotes the small stabilising muscles in your ankles to get stronger and react more quickly if you lose your balance. These stabilising muscles are vital for proprioception which is your body’s sixth sense that helps you balance or catch yourself if you trip. If we don’t train our proprioception then it naturally declines as we get older, making us more likely to suffer injuries from falls in old age.
8.Social and Cultural Enrichment
When you go out for trekking, it is not only nature that you get close to. Besides the beautiful environs, the people endemic to the region also fill the trekkers’ bag of experience with variety and value. Every hill region has its unique culture, history, legends, and traditions. Talking to the regional people and exchanging words with the porters and the guides, who often lead the trekkers, can widen your knowledge multifold. Also, you get to know about several languages and traditions that enrich you as a global citizen.
Be it the mountains of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, or the untamed woods, the best way to reveal the bounty of nature anywhere remains to go on foot. Though I am a Travel Blogger who is always up to explore the new locations, trekking is something I can never say no to. And that’s because I truly believe that nothing can bring you closer to the mysteries and wonders of nature than trekking. The beauty of nature is exceptional and endless. And to explore it at its best, all you got to do is to pull up your socks, get your trekking shoes on, and head for a journey to unravel the mystic beauty of the mountains along your trail.
