14 DAY TRIAL // Although it’s more than just simple common sense to say that walking or biking to work at least part of the commute is extremely beneficial for our health and, ultimately, in terms of keeping off or losing weight, a new study comes to show just to what extent this is true. Men, it seems, benefit more from this type of activity but, overall, both genders stand to benefit considerably from it, USA Today informs.
The research, conducted in the context of the rising obesity rates and the gradual inclusion in our lifestyle of ever more sedentary habits, proves beyond any doubt that walking or riding a bike on the way to work – even at least for one part of the commute – can be just the thing to help fight the weight gain issue. Not only would such a method be a correspondent of actually going to a gym (just with less sweating and immediately noticeable results), but, scientists point out, only 60 minutes would suffice to keep as fit as a fiddle.
After establishing that, as a general rule, men and women who walk or bike to work perform better in fitness tests, researchers also determined that men stand to gain more from this type of activity. They, for instance, also present healthier blood pressure and insulin levels, and trigyceride levels as a direct result of working out this way. “We don’t know why women don’t reap all the same health benefits as men. We can speculate – women may not be exercising as intensely or it may be that they are commuting shorter distances. But for both [genders], we see significant health benefits to walking or biking to work.” Penny Gordon-Larsen, Ph.D., author of the study and an obesity epidemiologist, explains for the aforementioned publication.
Whereas the many benefits of established workout routines and other sports have been detailed in countless studies before, few actually dealt with the topic of “non-leisure” workout activities, such as commuting to work, the author says. Because of this, researchers focused on a group of 2,364 young adults who had to commute to work. Those who walked or rode a bike, as opposed to driving or taking public transportation, did so on an average of 20 minutes for men and 17 minutes for women each day, and, on account of it, they also performed better in the fitness test included at the end of the study.
Unfortunately, this recent research has also shown that less and less people consider walking or biking to work a viable option, with less than 20% of the participants in the study actually doing this mild physical activity. “Walking or biking to work is one way to increase physical activity. Ultimately it would be wonderful to see more people walking and biking to work, but to make this happen, we need to make walking and biking safe and accessible by reducing environmental barriers to activity.” Gordon-Larsen concludes by saying.