Your Brain On A Hot Girl Walk: What Science Says About This Wellness Trend

The “Hot Girl Walk,” a term coined by Mia Lind, refers to the simple act of daily walking to improve your mental and physical health while also reminiscing on your goals, your gratitudes, and “how hot you are.”

However, “Hot Girl” Walking is more than just a fun catchphrase. While you may have heard of the “Hot Girl Walk,” you may not have heard about the several science-backed benefits proving why walking should be your ultimate wellness tool. “Hot Girl” walking isn’t just for improving your physique and confidence; walking has been shown to boost your mental health, aid in emotional regulation, decrease stress, activate vital brain regions, improve age-related cognitive decline, enhance your immune system and metabolic health, and even encourage prosocial behavior and creativity. Additionally, walking may even aid in processing trauma. 

Walking offers several benefits for women at every stage of life, whether you’re a “Hot Mom” walking with your crew, or a “Hot Girl” walking by yourself. This article breaks down 5 science-backed reasons why women should embrace the holistic health benefits of the Hot Girl Walk—not just for the trend, but for lasting mental and physiological health. 

1. Walking Can Help You Process Trauma and Emotions

The hemispheric movements you make with your limbs and the directional scanning of your eyes while you walk are considered forms of bilateral stimulation. Bilateral stimulation refers to any technique or movement that involves the simultaneous stimulation of both hemispheres of the brain. This technique is utilized most notably in trauma therapies, such as Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing, through side-to-side eye movements, bilateral hand taps and vibrations, or bilateral auditory tones. Bilateral stimulation has proven successful in treating symptoms of anxiety, depression, trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) across several research studies. Bilateral stimulation facilitates emotional processing by supporting the brain’s natural processing system, which can become impaired by traumatic experiences.

Bilateral stimulation allows individuals to reconcile distressing thoughts, memories, and emotions by lowering the intensity of the physiological arousal that often accompanies distressing memories. Essentially, the bilateral and simultaneous actions of your legs, arms, and eyes while walking allow you to access your parasympathetic nervous system, which is why people often feel rejuvenated after going for a walk when they’ve just received bad news, fought with a loved one, or experienced a depressive bout. 

2. Walking Boosts Your Feel-Good Neurotransmitters and Hormones

Research involving college students with high levels of stress found that walking for 25 minutes at least 3 days a week resulted in significant reductions in stress and negative emotions. Walking stimulates the release of endorphins and serotonin, which lower feelings of anxiety and distress outdoors in nature. Further, walking in surroundings of greenery, open fields, forests, and parks vastly improves your mood, inspiring a sense of awe and peace. Awe, the feeling we associate with that sense of overwhelming reverence for an experience, emotion, art, or beauty, increases the levels of oxytocin that our brains release. Oxytocin, often referred to as the “love hormone,” has been found to enhance dopamine function and promote feelings of pleasure and happiness. 

Additionally, the experience of awe has also been found to reduce our stress response, lower feelings of social rejection, decrease anxiety and depression, and increase prosocial behavior towards others. So, yes, experiencing awe while on your walks may make you a better person.

3. Walking Activates Important Brain Regions and Improves Cognitive Abilities

Research shows that walking can strengthen the connections between brain regions involved in the default mode network (DMN), a brain network associated with introspection, creativity, integration, social cognition, and prediction error processing. Activation of the DMN enables us to self-reflect, better understand others’ perspectives and emotions, process information, and develop creative and novel ideas. Further, a 6- and 12-month walking intervention study found that walking three times per week—beginning with 10 minutes for the first 7 weeks and maintaining a 40-minute duration for the remainder of the intervention—resulted in enhanced brain connectivity in brain regions that support the DMN and improved executive function. Interestingly, brain regions sensitive to aging in older adults showed increased connectivity, similar to the brain regions of young adults, following the walking intervention, suggesting that regular walks may slow age-related cognitive decline and improve neuroplasticity. Additionally, walking can increase the brain’s concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein integral to neuronal survival, neuroplasticity, and the strengthening of synaptic connections, a key process in learning and memory.

4. Walking Promotes Relaxation, Reduces Cortisol Levels, and Boosts Your Immune System

The feeling of awe from spending time in nature has also been found to reduce sympathetic nervous system arousal and promote the shift toward activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in a physiological state of rest. Notably, walking can provide a state of calm in as little as 15 minutes. As we walk, we begin to focus more on our surroundings, our respiratory rate, the feeling of safety in our bodies, and the present moment rather than the potential turmoil in our internal world. This shift into a parasympathetic state not only allows our minds to settle, but also signals to our brains that our stress response can subside, preventing the flood of cortisol, stress hormones, inflammatory cytokines, and glucose into our bloodstream. 

Walking triggers a release of endorphins that further help counteract high cortisol levels, and doing so after a meal can improve our glycemic response. This is especially important for women’s metabolic health because our cortisol responses and insulin sensitivity significantly influence our hormonal and mental health. Dysregulated cortisol and glucose levels have a broad impact on our hormone fluctuations, even affecting our ability to ovulate. Further, when our glucose levels become dysregulated, especially by chronically elevated cortisol, we can easily begin to experience increased feelings of irritability, rage, anxiety, depression, and worry, and even autoimmune symptoms—as the constant flood of cortisol in our bodies increases the release of inflammatory cytokines. Interestingly, studies have also found that walking in a forest can boost our immunity by way of increasing our killer T immune cell activity and antioxidant levels. Researchers found that participants’ immunity boost lasted for up to 7 days following the forest exposure. 

So, the next time you’re tempted to forgo lacing up your sneakers and heading out for a “Hot Girl Walk,” remember that it’s not just about a trend or achieving a certain physique. Each step you take is a quiet act of rebellion against burnout, brain fog, negative emotions, and declining metabolic health. “Hot Girl Walks” empower your mind, soul, and body; Walking helps you process your trauma, boost your neurotransmitters, calm your nervous system, and improve your physical, mental, and neurological health. “Hot Girl Walks” are therapy in motion, a wellness ritual in sneakers and your next opportunity to thrive—and thriving is, indeed, hot.