The walks that the post-confinement brought and that have come to stay: "Fear is better fought"

"We cannot forget one of the benefits of hiking: it can be done with other people. Talking, laughing, enjoying, enriching ourselves with the opinions of others ... it defines us as human beings and makes us feel good, so the reward is This, for example, is something you don't get from running, where you often train in order to lower your marks, it's less playful. " Sports psychology explains a picture that became so common that it stopped attracting attention. Walkers in every corner, walking as an escape route against the pandemic, also as a sports activity: none grew more in 2021.

This is corroborated in its

, which ceased to be a social network of sports geeks to become the largest sports community in the world with more than 95 million athletes. "Walking is the easiest physical activity to do because it is within the reach of anyone. Beyond this, throughout 2020, the information that reached us is that the most populated areas, with the greatest overcrowding, suffered higher numbers of contagion. And hiking is a good way to escape from the city ", analyzes

, sports psychologist, professor at the European University, who also talks about "social intelligence". "Once in the rural environment, you will surely see more people hiking. At first it may make you feel not as special as you thought, but it ends up forging a sense of community and a self-belief that you are really doing the right thing. In the end , the human being is gregarious, we are herd animals, and if something goes well for our fellow human beings, I will also want to do it ".

Not only running, walking was the first thing so many did when, on May 2, 2020, after three months in confinement, they were able to go out to the street

. That day all the records were broken in Spain on Strava. But the phenomenon was not a flower of a day. Walkers continue to fill the streets of cities or rural settings. Discovering routes, each time longer. That is the main conclusion reached by the 2021 report that has just been made public. The sports boom that was experienced as a result of the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down, quite the opposite - "a kind of compensatory mechanism that makes the saying 'you don't know what you have until you lose it' is good" - but walking takes the Palm:

.

Older than 70 years

The phenomenon has been observed in all age groups, but, above all, among those over 50 years of age, especially those over 70 years of age: 56% of them have recorded walks (45% in Spain). "

. In the end it is difficult to escape from the daily information of contagion figures and others, and as sometimes we only pay attention when" we see the wolf's ears ... ". On the other hand On the other hand, for a person over 70 years of age, seeing that he is capable of walking, feeling active, functional and vigorous, gives him a self-image of himself as a healthy person and better combat the fear that continues to hover over us ", says Moreno .

Another piece of data to highlight from the report is that it indicates that

. "Sociology identified a long time ago that men practice more sports because women stay at home taking care of household chores. Fear and stress exist for everyone, so the fact that they have thrown themselves into practicing more sports seems to me a wonderful fact ", concludes Rubén Moreno.

Athletes who regularly upload their walks register between 2.5 and four hours per week of activity (3.7 in our country) and cyclists and runners who also walk are 16% more likely to remain active in six months than athletes who don't. Because in Spain, 64% of those who walk also run or ride a bicycle, but women runners and cyclists are 2.4 times more likely to go up walks than men.

The report draws attention to the

; In total, 1.8 billion activities have been published on Strava in the last 12 months, but also the growth of this social network. That makes a great sociological analysis. For example,

. The explanation lies in the closures and restrictions that the ski resorts suffered in 2021, which has meant a 37% decrease for alpine skiing and snowboarding compared to the previous season (October 2019 - September 2020).

Or how Filomena affected Spanish athletes

.

The heavy snowfalls caused the week of January 7 to 15 to increase indoor activities by 55% and outdoor sports practice to fall by 69%.

It's not just cold that plays a role: during the Oregon heat wave in the summer, outdoor activities dropped 23%.

By the way, another curiosity,

.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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