Walking is great for you. Taking a scenic walk? Even better. - chof 360 news

It’s hard to ignore the benefits of walking. Getting more steps in throughout your day can improve many health markers, including promoting better sleep, reducing blood pressure and lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes. These health wins happen whether you hit the pavement or the treadmill at the gym. But while it’s great to sneak in steps wherever you can get them, there are additional benefits from taking a scenic walk out in nature.

Whether you’re hiking up a mountain or wandering through the woods, taking your walk outdoors — where you can enjoy the majesty of nature, whatever that looks like in your area — can help improve your mental health and leave you awe-inspired. Here’s what to know.

The physical benefits of walking in nature

Exercise, in general, is important for our health — but spending time walking in nature goes beyond these basic benefits.

Walking in the great outdoors is more challenging than walking on a flat surface like pavement or a treadmill, Milica McDowell, an exercise physiologist and vice president of operations at Gait Happens, tells chof360 Life. That’s because it “boosts your stabilizing muscle recruitment, your neuromuscular coordination, your movement planning skills and your muscle and cardiovascular endurance.” When we walk on a hiking trail, sand or a grassy path, it engages more muscles, improving our balance and coordination more effectively than walking on flat surfaces. And the harder we work, the higher our heart rate gets, which can strengthen our lungs and heart.

Plus, “being outdoors helps support our body’s natural functions,” Michelle Jungmin Bang, the author of the upcoming book Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness & Longevity, tells chof360 Life. “Evolutionarily speaking, we are programmed to be outdoors while the sun is shining and home in bed when it gets dark at night.”

Getting sunlight in the mornings, for example — as you would on a sunrise stroll through the park — can help regulate your circadian rhythm.

Your eyes can benefit from spending time outdoors too, Bang says. “Studies also demonstrate that we should be outside at least two hours per day to offset myopia — the inability to clearly see far-sighted objects — by being able to see into the distance and being exposed to outdoor light,” she explains.

Spending time outside also gives you the opportunity to stare at objects that are at least 20 feet in front of you, which can prevent eyestrain. That’s something that can be challenging to do when you spend a lot of time inside or staring at a screen.

Thanks to modern lifestyles that revolve around work, driving and screen time, the average American spends 93% of their time indoors, which means we are exposed to “very little microbial diversity,” Bang says.

But getting out in nature, she says, allows us to live “a little dirtier,” which research says can benefit our immune systems. Interacting with the natural environment (dirt, germs, fresh air, etc.) helps us “train our immune systems to respond appropriately,” she says. Spending time outside also encourages good bacteria to “grow and flourish” in our bodies, she explains, which can improve our overall health.

Walking in nature leaves us inspired

“You're going to see things in different dimensions when you go outside,” Dr. Edward Phillips, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and host of the podcast Food, We Need to Talk, tells chof360 Life. “It’s only when you look up and are standing under some enormous tree that you understand the majesty of it.”

That feeling, Phillips says, is called “awe” — and experiencing awe, research says, is great for your mental health. Doing so boosts happy chemicals like oxytocin and calms your nervous system, slowing your heart rate and reducing stress.

Nature is uniquely good at putting us in that state. Psychotherapist Katie Asmus, the founder of the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, tells chof360 Life that the “dynamic nature of nature” means “our attention is more free to wander and to be caught by something novel, pleasing, surprising, awe-inducing or touching” than it would in a dense cityscape, where we have to navigate “other people, traffic and loud noises.”

Walking on a treadmill has physiological benefits, she notes, but it “does not provide the same opportunity for relaxed attention.” Not only is there no scenery to observe, but also our focus is instead directed to screens, whether it’s your smartphone or the row of TVs hanging overhead at your gym.

Walking in nature forces us to be mindful

Mindfulness is when we intentionally focus on the present moment, paying attention to our thoughts, feelings and surroundings without judgment.

A scenic walk is an ideal way to practice mindfulness, as it allows us to immerse ourselves in the sights, sounds and smells of nature, Dr. Rita Gupta, a physician specializing in nature therapy, tells chof360 Life. While walking in nature, we’re able to focus on the “feel of fresh air, the sounds of birdsong and the sight of trees and sky, [which] can be deeply grounding and emotionally uplifting,” she says.

Phillips says that a walk in the woods grounds you by allowing you to “smell the roses” — sometimes, literally. “If you go into the woods, you can smell whatever it is that’s going on, from the scents of animals to the trees,” he notes.

The bottom line

Again, any type of walking is good for you, whether that’s doing laps at the local mall or exploring a hiking trail. However, if you’re seeking a way to improve your immune system, feel a sense of awe or stay more present in the moment, heading outside and taking the scenic route is the way to go.