Aside from the beautiful view of the ocean and the great people watching there are many benefits of walking on the beach. Walking in sand requires a greater effort than walking on a hard surface. Your muscles and tendons will work harder as your foot moves around.Walking at a slower pace requires more effort than walking fast or even jogging. Walking in sand requires 2.1 to 2.7 times more energy than walking on hard surfaces. Jogging in sand uses1.6 times more energy than jogging on hard surfaces.
For most of us burning calories is one of the benefits of any exercise. One the primary benefits of walking on a beach is that you will use 20 to 50 percent more calories than you would walking at the same pace on a hard surface.
For a short stroll down the beach bare feet are fine, but if you are going to walk a longer distance then make sure you walk in shoes. Put on your favorite walking shoes or better yet your Teva sandals so you do not have to worry about getting your shoes wet. Walking too far in sand in bare feet can result in shin splints or a sore tendon in your heel.
As always, if you are walking in the heat take the normal precautions: wear a hat, take a bottle of water and don’t forget to put on your sun screen. Of course, if you get too hot you can always jump in the water to cool off.
Since we all want to protect our walking areas for future generations don’t wander into environmentally sensitive areas such as dunes.
Of course you gain the same benefits by walking in sand in any form. So you could trek across a desert but given a choice most of us would choose to walk on a beach. In fact many of us would choose to spend our time walking on beaches even if there were no health benefits.
Don’t forget that one of the many benefits of walking is that walking is relaxing so don’t forget to stop and pick up a pretty shell, look for porpoises playing in the surf, and notice the always changing colors of the water and the sky.
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