You know the walk. Same loop, same pace, same podcast. Forty minutes later you are home and not even warm.
There is a way to get more out of less, and it comes from a Japanese lab, not an app.
All it asks is that you watch the clock.
The rule
- Walk fast for 3 minutes.
- Walk slowly for 3 minutes.
- Repeat five times. That is 30 minutes.
- Do it four days a week.
Researchers call it interval walking training. The internet calls it Japanese walking.
Where it comes from
The method was developed at Shinshu University in Japan by Hiroshi Nose and Shizue Masuki. Their best-known study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2007, followed 246 adults with an average age of 63.
The people who alternated fast and slow walking gained more than the steady walkers did: thigh strength rose 13 to 17 percent, aerobic capacity rose 8 to 9 percent, and their resting blood pressure fell further, according to HealthDay’s report on the study.
There is a detail in the research that explains why the slow part matters. In a report carried by the Daily Herald, the team described a group that was asked to walk fast for the full 30 minutes. Nobody finished the program. It was too hard, and too boring.
The intervals are what make it something people keep doing. In a later analysis of 826 participants, 783 completed the program, Metropolis magazine reported.
How fast is fast?
You do not need a heart-rate monitor. Use the talk test from the same Daily Herald report: during the fast three minutes you should not be able to chat comfortably. During the slow three you should.
The slow part is not a shuffle. The Art of Manliness describes it as a little faster than a stroll.
If you hate watching a timer, physical therapist Sarah Crawford has a trick: walk quickly past ten mailboxes, then slowly past the next ten.
Or let a song do it. Three minutes is about the length of a song, so the fitness channel Hybrid Calisthenics suggests walking at one pace until the track changes, then speeding up or slowing down.
Before you start
Crawford’s caution in the same report is worth repeating. Someone who has not been exercising should not jump straight into high-intensity anything. Surgeon Mir Ali suggests building up, and says even 15 minutes twice a day does good.
If you have a heart condition, joint trouble or any doubt, ask your doctor first.
How to make it stick
- Use the route you already walk. Nothing else has to change.
- Build a playlist of three-minute songs that alternate fast and slow, and let the music be the timer.
- Tack it onto something fixed: the school run, a lunch break, the walk to coffee.
Same loop. Same shoes. This time, watch the clock.
Experts: Shizue Masuki, professor, Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine; Sarah Crawford, physical therapist; Mir Ali, bariatric surgeon
Study referenced: Nemoto et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings, July 2007
This article is general information, not medical advice. Lead photo: Belyak Production / Pexels.
