Benefits

Benefits of exercising with Hills For Health

Exercise is important in keeping up your overall health and for most also the overall well-being. In order for us to highlight some of the advantages from exercise we have teamed up with Dr. Federico Formenti - a senior lecturer in Human Physiology at King's College London. We asked him a few questions, featured below.

"On a scale from 1-10 with 1 being the lowest how important is exercise for the overall health?"
- 10, it is very important for all organs and muscles to be kept active and strong.

"Does this importance improve with age?"
- Yes, indeed! The reason it becomes even more important with age is that our adult lifestyles are generally less active. Sketch created in collaboration with Dr. Federico Formenti

"Is there a significant advantage of exercising in the hills compared to a horizontal terrain?"
- Studies suggest that stimulus is higher, when going up and down. A low gradient for longer is preferred over a higher gradient for a short period of time. To ensure that the muscles are stimulated in the best manner it is vital that you are also walking down hills instead of only up and plateauing. In short; Variety is key.

Stimulus on your body and musles is higher when walking in hills.

"What would be an ideal length for an exercise/walk?"
- I would say that 20-30 minutes is the preferred range. Even if you only walk for 20 minutes, your metabolism will stay elevated for several minutes after the end of the exercise/walk.