Why one long walk beats two short strolls

Sustained walking sessions have more health benefits than short, intermittent bouts, study finds

Walking for more than 10 minutes at a time could be key to a healthier lifestyle. Getty Images

Walking for 10 minutes at a time, rather than achieving the same number of steps in a few short bursts, is more beneficial for your health, a study has found.

A study of more than 33,000 adults in the UK who each walk fewer than 8,000 steps per day found evidence that how those steps were accumulated had an impact on health.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal, found that in nearly eight years of follow-up, participants who got their exercise in sustained bouts of more than 10 minutes were less likely to die or suffer cardiovascular disease than those who did several shorter walks. They said that modest changes in walking patterns could yield health benefits.

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“Sedentary adults are a high-risk, hard-to-reach population often excluded from structured exercise programmes. Yet this study suggests that they stand to gain the most from lengthening walking bouts,” the team found.

Health promotion campaigns, digital apps, and insurer wellness programmes could readily integrate “bout goals” alongside traditional step targets with current wearable technology capable of tracking bout duration, they said.

They pointed out that the “magic number” of 10,000 daily steps did not come from clinicians or scientists, but originated without any supporting science more than six decades ago from a Japanese manufacturer of pedometers named Manpo-Kei, which translates to “10 000 steps meter”.

They said the health benefits of walking more was well known, but less attention had been paid to speed or rhythm of walking. Faster steps may add benefits, but appears to be less important than the number of steps, they found. They said understanding whether short, intermittent bouts would create the same benefits as longer walks was particularly relevant for the least active people.

Borja del Pozo Cruz, senior researcher at the Universidad Europea de Madrid, told The National the difference was not necessarily because it raises heart rate, as may be assumed, but “for cardiovascular benefits to appear, the body usually needs a certain amount of sustained stimulus, either through higher intensity or longer duration”.

“In our study of relatively inactive adults, longer walking bouts may provide that needed volume of continuous movement to activate protective mechanisms for the heart and blood vessels, even when the intensity itself isn’t high,” he said.

“What matters most is that you reach a good total volume of walking each day. However, for people who are very inactive – our study focus – doing a few longer walks can be especially helpful because it boosts both the volume and the intensity a bit.

“But for people already taking lots of steps, spreading walking throughout the day is also healthy. The key message is: if you don’t move much, longer walks can give your heart a stronger workout – if you already move a lot, just keep going.”