Waking improves creativity, can help with weight loss: 5 ways to avoid sitting all day  |  Photo Credit: iStock Images
- Physical activity such as walking can offer immense health benefits to people of all ages
- A new study done Standford researchers explains how walking may increase creativity levels
- Here’s what you can do to stay active and sit less to maintain weight, promote overall health and well-being
New Delhi: Walking is a great form of exercise to improve your overall health and well-being. It can help you lose weight, prevent or manage certain medical conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Now, a study by Standford researchers has found that walking boosts creative thinking.
According to the research, creativity levels were higher for individuals walking compared to those sitting. The new study found that a person’s creative output raised by an average of 60 per cent when walking.
How walking helps with creativity
According to the study co-authored by Marily Oppezzo, a Stanford doctoral graduate in educational psychology, and Daniel Schwartz, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, walking indoors or outdoors improves creativity levels – consistently and significantly. However, the authors noted that the main factor was walking itself and not the environment.
“Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking. We finally may be taking a step, or two, toward discovering why,” Oppezzo and Schwartz wrote in the study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.
One of the experiments observed that walking indoors on a treadmill in a room or walking outdoors in the fresh air produced the same creativity results – both outdoor and indoor walkings caused twice as many creative responses than sitting.
“I thought walking outside would blow everything out of the water, but walking on a treadmill in a small, boring room still had strong results, which surprised me,” said Oppezzo, now an adjunct faculty member at Santa Clara University.
However, the researchers noted that walking appeared to have no link to focused thinking, although it had a positive effect on creative thinking.
“This isn’t to say that every task at work should be done while simultaneously walking, but those that require a fresh perspective or new ideas would benefit from it,” Oppezzo added.
The study comprised of four experiments involving 176 college students and other adults who completed their tasks commonly used by researchers to measure creative thinking.
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Walking may aid weight loss
Sitting down too much puts you at an increased risk of several conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer and early death. Walking is a great activity that can help you burn calories and aid weight loss. According to Mayo Clinic, just adding 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily routine will help you burn about 150 more calories a day – yet, the faster and longer you walk, the more calories you’ll burn.
Tips to avoid sitting all day
And here’s how to walk more and sit less to maintain weight and stay healthy:
- Stand or walk while talking on the phone
- Avoid sitting at a desk or working on a computer for extended periods of time
- Avoid long periods sat in front of a TV
- Take the stairs as much as possible
- Find active hobbies such as gardening or involve in doing household chores, which are a great way to burn calories
So, keep walking, find ways to stay active wherever you are, but ensure that you eat a healthy, balanced diet for a healthier, fitter, happier and wiser you.
Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purpose only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a dietician before starting any fitness programme or making any changes to your diet.
