5 Ways To Make Walking Even Healthier

The more I learn about the health benefits of walking, the more I understand why the NHS calls the exercise “overlooked”.

Walking as few as 2,337 steps a day can reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, while a 1.6km stroll is linked to denser bones.

It can help your sleep, joints, and immune system, and may even lower your cravings for sweet foods. Walking for half an hour daily may add 1.4 years to women’s lives, and 2.5 to men’s.

But if you want to make a great thing even better for you, it turns out there are some simple changes – like bringing a friend on your walk, or taking a hilly route – that could be worth your while.

All walking is good for us. But in one study, brisk walking was linked to a 20% reduction in premature death compared to just 4% for slower walkers.

The NHS said that we should aim for a 4.8km/hour pace. Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, Dr Hussain Ahmad said brisk walking “means you’re walking fast enough to feel warmer and breathe a bit harder, but [are] still able to hold a conversation”.

“Incline walking,” or walking on a slope, seems to engage more muscles and raise heart rates higher than walking on a flat surface.

Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, GP Dr Suzanne Wylie said: “For many people, especially those who are new to exercise, carrying excess weight, managing joint pain or recovering from injury, incline walking can provide meaningful cardiovascular benefit and muscle engagement.”

Even downhill walking may benefit us, especially as we age.

Speaking to the University of Oxford, Dr Arran Davis said that fatigue is much more determined by how we feel than by the actual condition of our muscles.

Social support helps to reduce and delay that perceived fatigue, helping us to push ourselves for longer. The effect is so strong that even seeing a photo of a supportive friend makes us feel less tired.

10,000 steps a day is a marketing tool – scientists have since found that around 7,000 paces daily is enough to lower your risk of all-cause mortality by 47%.

But “Japanese walking,” a type of interval walking that involves walking for three minutes at a fast pace and then slowly for another three minutes until you reach a half-hour walking, may be one of the most beneficial ways to reach that goal.

A 2007 paper found that among middle-aged participants, people who followed that pattern enjoyed lower blood pressure, stronger thigh muscles, and better aerobic ability than those who walked 8,000 steps a day at a steady pace.

The NHS recommends getting 20-30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, like walking, a day.

A 2023 review found that “Meeting current physical activity guidelines by walking briskly for 30 min per day for 5 days can reduce the risk of several age-associated diseases”; in post-menopausal women, for instance, half an hour’s walk a day was linked to a 40% lower risk of hip fracture.

Of course, until about 9,800 steps a day – when health benefits max out – more walking is generally better. But the NHS points out that “a brisk 10-minute daily walk has lots of health benefits,” and a recent study found that 4.5 minutes extra movement a day can reduce your heart attack risk.