How Alpine skiing can work wonders for your health

When it comes to Alpine skiing, many of the advantages are immediately obvious. For starters, skiing is undeniably fun. Whether you're flying down the side of a mountain at 30mph, or exploring new, undiscovered back country routes on your cross country skis, few things can match the sense of excitement and adventure brought about by skiing.

Then there's the sense of freedom and exhilaration gained by skiing down a mountain, the wind blowing through your helmet and nothing ahead except miles of snow-covered trees and snow-capped fells.

However, on top of the fun factor and sense of exhilaration, skiing is also great for your health, too; in more ways than one. Skiing improves your flexibility, your strength, your cardiovascular health, and can even go someway towards improving your mental well-being.

That's why here at Alpine Property Investments we've laid out just a few of the many healthy reasons to pay a visit to the Alps this skiing season:

Boost your cardiovascular health

One great thing about skiing in the mountains is the resultant boost to your cardiovascular health. The most obvious reason for this is that when you're skiing downhill or cross country, you're constantly using your leg and arm muscles to retain balance and posture. This requires more oxygen to the muscles, thus boosting your heart rate and increasing your cardiovascular activity. That much is obvious.

However, another perk of milling about in the Alps is the fact that the mountains are far higher above sea level than your average town or city. As a result, the air is thinner, and you need to do a lot more breathing to take in the same amount of oxygen. Therefore, even walking the ski base is doing a lot more good for your health than the same activity would at sea level.

Improve your muscles

One vital aspect of skiing is balance. This means that the leg muscles, in particular the hamstrings and the quads, are constantly being used to make small changes in order to retain balance and prevent you falling down the slope in a large, embarrassing snowball. However, just as important when skiing is the act of eversion. This is the name given to the act of pushing out the sole of your foot to slow down or to turn your skis. Eversion is a great way of improving the strength in your lower legs.

Give your mental well-being a boost

So far, we've looked at a couple of the physical advantages of skiing; the ways in which the mountain air and the physical exertion can greatly improve your muscles and cardiovascular health. However, skiing can also be highly beneficial where your mental well-being is concerned.

Of course, the mental health benefits of regular exercise are well-documented, so we won't go into too much depth here. But skiing also has the added advantage of generally taking place in wide, open, scenic, beautiful surroundings. Not only do such surroundings provide spectacular views, but they also contrast greatly with the dull monotony of day-to-day office life, giving a feeling of freedom and exhilaration that can greatly boost your mental well-being.

So there you have it; even more good reasons why owning a property in the Alps is not only a great investment, but also has significant benefits for your health and well-being too.

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