(Yoga vs Morning walk) The discussion to start with isn’t new at all. Everyone thinking about incorporating exercise into their daily schedule for one reason or the other comes to this crossroad where they wander and ponder which way to take. Morning walk does look like the easiest way to go ahead, but the concept of yoga is all the more intriguing, vastly recommended and highly tempting. Not taking anything away from each of these (they have distinctive but absolute benefits), one may still be required to choose one of them, especially starters. So, here’s a very realistic and practical overview of both the exercises, what separates them and the most important, which is the best for you.
Morning Walk
Morning walk, since ages, has been the most followed as well as effective ways of creating, developing as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Walking, in general, is almost a perfect fit into whatever lifestyle we have, be it the early morning office or late night shifts, walking in sunrise effortlessly alternates with walking in the sunset, both presenting equally magical atmospheres. Although there’s a humongous list of benefits of a morning walk, these are very some very handpicked ones having more impact than others.
- Weight Loss
Sitting in the metro, in the movie theatre, in the office, the tea stall, sitting and sitting for hours and hours almost everywhere even in the toilet seat. The energy hardly gets lost, thus, increasing unnecessary fat resulting in obesity. A 30-40 minute morning walk may be the only solution you’re looking for. Walking burns calories, as fast you walk, the more calories. Each unit of fat provides 9 kcal as compared to 4 kcal by carbohydrates. So, the more energy you lose, the more fat you burn, unnecessary lumps of fat.
- Limiting cholesterol levels
While cholesterol is useful for the body, high levels of cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Along with other aerobics, walking is one of the simplest as well as an effective way of maintaining cholesterol levels. Walking for 30 minutes is enough but walking should be at a brisk pace, as they say, walk at a speed at which you can talk but not sing.
- Increases Stamina
During during walking the energy gets used faster and so more oxygen is needed to breathe. As the lungs pump extra oxygen its capacity and thus, our overall stamina increases. So, a 30 minute morning walk would help you build good stamina and thus help you reduce fatigue too.
There are numerous other benefits like :
- Increasing bone health
- Building calves and other muscles
- Preventing arthritis
- Toning the body et cetera.
- Time and Duration
Morning walk should be done in the morning before breakfast. Since the primary objective for most people of a morning walk is to lose weight, early morning is the best time to do so. This is because, the temperature and energy are low in the morning, hence, the body uses stored fat to generate energy.
The ideal duration of a morning walk is around 30 minutes but it is totally dependent upon you. If you can push yourself to 45 minutes, it is always better but keep the minimum duration to 25 minutes for the best results.
Requirements
What is required to run? Sports shoes, joggers and t-shirt, is that it? What else you require though, is some strength in your legs, a bit of stamina and you shouldn’t already have heart disease because jogging may have further adverse effects on your heart due to increased heart rate. Also, it’s important to keep walking without stoppages and so it demands you to work hard.
Yoga
An exercise that makes people use each part of their body as well as their minds. Yoga, with numerous different postures, has an unbelievable amount of benefits. Yoga is the most instinctive form of exercise where you feel the changes going on in your body. It strengthens the connection between the mind and the body. Here are a few benefits listed :
- Builds strength and immunity
Yoga helps build strength by using our own body weight, lifting it with different parts through different poses. Power yoga is all for strength training.
- Better joints, bones and muscles
Ageing or hardly used joints and bones can leave them from being weakened. Also, underutilized muscles may depreciate its own strength. its opens the whole body by using different joints, bones and muscles in effective and efficient ways
- Weight loss
Although yoga asanas aren’t as demanding as aerobics in terms of lung capacity and energy loss, weight loss is 70% diet control and 30% exercise according to experts. What yoga does is open up the mind and make you feel the need and the requirements of your body. So you won’t really eat unhealthy when you start listening to your own body and won’t even overeat. Thus yoga helps in weight loss.
Other benefits include:
- Health and mental physical and spiritual well being
- Peace of mind
- Stress reliever
- Better breathe et cetera.
Time and Duration
An intriguing fact about yoga is that it needs a 4 to 6-hour empty stomach to work best. In yogic science, Brahma muhurta is the best time to practice yoga that is 3:40 a.m. in the morning. Now, it won’t be realistic to sleep at 12 and wake up at 3:40 a.m. So it is better to work out a convenient morning time around the Sunrise which is still the best time to do yoga relative to other times of the day.
It is recommended to workout for 1 to 1.5 hours a day for 3 weeks. But that is totally dependent upon factors like environment you are working out in, whether you are taking video classes or an instructor outdoors. You can also opt for 20 minutes exercise routine throughout the whole week.
Requirements
Its requires the will to connect to the deeper pastures inside you. It is carried forward by the belief in spirituality and the desire to search for the truth. It helps a person want to know about the inside stories, know himself and concentrate on bigger meaning than mere illusions.
What do you want?
Since now you know the benefits of both the activities, the question you gotta ask yourself, what do you want? It is kind of a life-changing exercise if practised with all the might. It helps you know your body and your soul more than ever. That way once you know yourself everything automatically starts to fall in place since you accept that nothing is out of place and everything is there for a reason. You also start to cut off unnecessary wants. Meditation also helps in drastically changing our own perspective towards life and stress is largely reduced.
On the other hand, walking helps in increasing heart rate, blood circulation and stamina and at times does this all better than yoga. It helps in weight loss which yoga also does as explained before. It is an exercise that is really helpful in creating a good physique and getting healthy but yoga helps in creating healthy habits. In every little thing you do, Its causes improvement, and thus you start doing EVERYTHING better. Also, yoga has numerous asanas which help in bodybuilding while walking doesn’t. But, yoga requires devotion, mentally and spiritually more than physically. So if you’re really up for it, yoga is recommended for the overall health but if you just have to lose weight or increase stamina, you may turn up to walk from tomorrow morning.
References :
- https://www.care2.com/greenliving/yoga-or-a-walk-which-is-better-for-your-heart.html
- https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.epainassist.com/amp/yoga/duration-of-yoga-session
- http://www.osteopathic.org/osteopathic-health/about-your-health/health-conditions-library/general-health/Pages/yoga.aspx
- https://www.developgoodhabits.com/morning-walk-benefits/