People who want to get the biggest bang from their exercise routines may take to a recent social media fad, the resurgence of a form of interval walking, popularly known as Japanese walking.
The name derives from a 2007 study in which Japanese researchers found that alternating between fast and slow paces while walking helped protect against age-related increases in blood pressure and decreases in muscle strength. Another study showed that people who walked fast for three minutes and then slow for three minutes – repeating that pattern for a total of 30 minutes – five days a week, for 10 years, had 20% stronger legs and a 40% increase in their peak exercise capacity – the highest level of physical exertion a person is able to attain.
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A recent article described Japanese walking as training that "... won’t end in you collapsing on the floor, hating your life." Some social media influencers are touting the workout not just for its health benefits but also because it is easier to incorporate into daily routines and more efficient than trying to get in 10,000 steps a day.
New research published last week shows that fewer steps a day may go further than previously thought with the health benefits of walking plateauing after about 7,000 steps, as opposed to the popularly-touted 10,000 steps a day. And interval walking is a wise choice for people who have weakness, balance issues or injuries that prevent them from doing higher impact forms of exercise, according to a physical therapist interviewed by VeryWell Health.
One way to get into interval walking is by taking the dog out for a stroll, Washington Post exercise columnist Gretchen Reynolds wrote last week.
"Dogs are natural interval trainers," Reynolds said. "They’ll rush along the sidewalk for half a block at full speed, then smell something marvelously stinky on that bush and stop to sniff for a sec, before hurrying up again until the next wonderful stink arrives."
Research shows that people who regularly walk their dogs accumulate about 30 minutes of exercise throughout the day – a "good percentage" of which will be intervals, Reynolds said.
Tips for starting Japanese walking
• Alternate 3 minutes of walking as fast as you can with 3 minutes of slow walking to recover. Repeat the intervals for 30 minutes.
• Use the "talk test" to see if your intensity level is high enough. During fast-walking intervals, you shouldn't be able to say more than a few words at a time.
• If you are out of shape, start with slow-walking and gradually build up over time to doing intervals.
• If you are just getting back into an exercise routine, do less than 30 minutes until you build up endurance.
• Use a timer on your watch or phone to keep track of three-minute intervals.