Longer Walks May Be Better for Your Heart Than Simply Reaching a Step Goal, Study Suggests
New research indicates that how you distribute your daily steps-specifically, prioritizing longer, continuous bouts of walking-may have a greater impact on cardiovascular health than achieving a specific step count. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that sustained walking can offer benefits beyond simply accumulating steps,perhaps improving blood flow adn insulin sensitivity.
While daily step goals remain a useful metric for overall activity, cardiologists are now speculating that longer, uninterrupted walks may be more effective for heart health. researchers found that even individuals with low levels of physical activity can improve their cardiovascular wellbeing by incorporating longer walking periods, ideally lasting 10 to 15 minutes when feasible.
The study’s author, Emmanuel Stamatakis, a sports scientist at the University of Sydney, notes that previous emphasis has been placed on how much people walk, rather than how they walk.”This study shows that even people who are very physically inactive can maximize their heart health benefit by tweaking their walking patterns to walk for longer at a time,” Stamatakis said.
Experts caution that more research is needed before public health recommendations are altered. Applied statistician Kevin McConway,who was not involved in the study,called the findings “intriguing” but emphasized,”It’s too early to tell how,if at all,these new findings should feed into public health recommendations on physical activity and step counting.”
Cardiologists Fabian Sanchis-Gomar from Stanford University, Carl Lavie from John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, and Maciej Banach, from medical University of Lodz in Poland, agree, stating in an editorial accompanying the study that future randomized clinical trials are needed to test the benefits of sustained walking. They speculate that longer bouts of continuous walking may promote cardiometabolic benefits.
