We know walking is vital for good health, and research shows that both the amount of steps you take daily and the intensity of walks is essential to getting the full heart-health benefits.
But a study published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that concentrating your steps in one long walk may offer greater benefits than spreading them across shorter ones.
Using UK Biobank data, the research team behind the study examined the daily behaviors of more than 30,000 adults in the UK. The average age of participants was 62.
Participants were placed into four groups based on how long they walked consistently, each time that they walked: in intervals of less than five minutes, five to a little under 10 minutes, 10 to nearly 15 minutes and 15 minutes or longer.
More than 40% of the participants landed in the group that walked in bouts of five minutes or less, the study found. But the study also showed that walking in intervals of 15 minutes or longer was associated with a lower risk of heart disease and mortality.
“This was particularly true for people that are mainly sedentary, so those that don’t meet the physical activity guidelines or those that sit all day long essentially, which could be most of us,” says Borja del Pozo Cruz, a professor in the department of sports sciences at Universidad Europea de Madrid, who was involved in the study.
The ideal amount of steps that research shows leads to the most health benefits falls somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 steps, with benefits peaking at 10,000 steps. Americans walk 4,800 steps a day on average, according to a 2017 study that used accelerometer data from smartphones.
“If you walk for longer, then the impact on health will be higher [and] better,” del Pozo Cruz says.
You need high volume, high intensity or both to see the greatest benefit from cardio
To get the most health benefits from cardio, you need high volume (8,000 to 10,000 steps a day), high intensity (a quick pace) or both, del Pozo Cruz explains.
“With people that walk 10,000 steps, they’ve got the volume already,” del Pozo Cruz says.
“Probably because they’ve walked more than 10,000, some of those steps are also higher intensity, so they’ve got a mix between the intensity and the volume that is needed to stimulate the cardio protective mechanisms.”
On the other hand, people who are mostly sedentary and walk well below 8,000 steps aren’t meeting the ideal volume, and often are walking at a lower intensity, he says.
Most people in this group accumulate their steps through moving “from one room to another. [Or] you move from your flat to the car. That’s about it,” del Pozo Cruz says.
“Those tend to be very low intensity. Because you don’t have the intensity [and] you don’t have the volume either,” he adds, “you at least need to accumulate the steps in a sustained manner so that it can activate these cardio protective mechanisms.”
The study showed that even when mostly inactive people had the same amount of steps, those who walked for longer bouts at a time saw greater gains for heart health than those who walked in shorter intervals.
It is recommended that you consult with a healthcare professional before making any significant changes to your exercise routine, but with this new evidence, del Pozo Cruz hopes that people will focus not only on how many steps they get in throughout the day, but also the amount of time they spend on a stroll.
“This information can be used in doctor’s offices [to] provide a more nuanced recommendation on top of ‘Go walk 30 minutes a day,’ or ‘Go and exercise,'” del Pozo Cruz says.
“Most patients are very sedentary, so if doctors could advise to go for longer walks like 15 to 20 minutes in one go, that’s much more beneficial than every step counts, accumulate activity whenever you can and be active throughout the day.”
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