This Is More Important Than Walking 10,000 Steps
Taking 10,000 steps a day is a beneficial habit, which to a certain extent, reflects the degree of people’s physical activity, or a state of life that is close to nature. In fact, many people have put this into practice for a long time.
However, how to implement walking 10,000 steps a day may still be vague in our minds—the same 10,000 steps, using casual walking or brisk walking, can bring very disparate effects. As we strive to reach 10,000 steps, what speed or cadence should we adopt to get the best results?
Walk More, Live Longer: Walking Is Better Than Not Walking
Many findings support the fact that increasing both the time and speed of walking can reduce the risk of all-cause mortality (ACM) and some diseases. However, most of these findings are analyzed based on people’s self-reported walking speed, which may not be accurate. For instance, there are divergences between self-perceived walking speed and actual speed, and between the memory of activity time and intensity and actual situations.
A joint study by Danish, Australian, and American researchers has finally made a breakthrough. They collected wrist accelerometer data—specifically and continuously—from 78,500 adults aged 40 to 79 in the United Kingdom (UK). The researchers tracked the data for an average of seven years, counting the incidences of cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), dementia, or death to reveal how much the daily steps and pace affect people’s health.
Through this experiment, people have a more intuitive understanding of how to maximize the benefits of walking and how to walk most efficiently when time is short.
Statistics show that as daily steps increase, ACM decreases. When daily steps reach approximately 10,000 steps, the decline in mortality is greatest, meaning that people who take 10,000 steps daily have the least chance of dying. Above that, the effect of reducing mortality is no longer apparent.
Of all participants, only about a quintile were active at 10,000 steps daily. Still, even walking a little is better than not walking at all. The data show that, for each 2,000 daily step increment within the 10,000-step range, ACM drops by eight percent, cancer mortality by 11 percent, and CVD mortality by 10 percent.
Walking Faster Is Better Than Walking Longer
Increasing walking speed may achieve the best results, rather than pursuing length of time or distance.
Walking speed throughout the day constantly varies, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Researchers in the experiment, therefore, counted each participant’s average steps per minute for the 30-highest minutes in a day (peak 30-minute cadence). The results show an additional 34 percent reduction in ACM among individuals in the highest 10 percent of walking speed compared to individuals in the lowest 10 percent. This suggests that walking faster can reduce mortality even more.
In the experiment, individuals with a peak 30-minute cadence of fewer than 52 steps are categorized as the slowest walkers; individuals with more than 96 steps are the fastest walkers. The death toll is significantly lower in the latter category.
How to Walk to Keep Dementia at Bay
The scientists then delved into the effects of walking on dementia with the same set of data.
The risk of dementia lowers by 51 percent with maximal effect when daily steps reach 9,800 steps, beyond or below which the benefits were limited. In other words, it is advised to walk 9,800 steps to prevent dementia to the greatest extent possible.
Most people may find it difficult to take 9,800 steps daily. However, the finding suggests that people who have no time or suffer from health conditions to walk that much can at least strive for the most basic target of 3,800 steps daily, which also provides a 25 percent lower dementia risk.
In addition, the same 9,800 steps, when walking faster, have a better effect on reducing the incidence of dementia. Statistics show that a walking speed of 112 steps per minute has the optimal effect on reducing the incidence of dementia, with a 62 percent reduction. Walking 112 steps per minute is tantamount to less than two steps per second. However, walking faster than that doesn’t further reduce the incidence of dementia.
Brisk Walking Reduces the Risk of Heart Failure, Stroke, and Many Other Diseases
Overall, brisk walking is more conducive to a lower risk of ACM, including cancer, CVD, and dementia. There are many other studies supporting this viewpoint with more findings.
First, brisk walking also reduces respiratory disease mortality.
Some researchers divided walking speed into three categories: <3 mph>4 mph as a brisk pace. They also had nearly 320,000 UK adults rate their speed and walking time themselves.
A mean during a 5-year follow-up shows that a one-category increment in walking pace is associated with a nine percent and 10 percent reduction in ACM, respectively, in women and men. Brisk walking in women can reduce respiratory disease mortality by 28 percent and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 71 percent when compared with slow walking; in men, the reduction is 24 percent and 51 percent respectively.
Interestingly, the study also finds that individuals who walk at a slow pace have higher morbidity and mortality from CVD and respiratory disease regardless of the length of time spent walking. In contrast, individuals who walk a moderate or low amount of time at a fast pace have lower morbidity and mortality from these diseases. Therefore, researchers recommend shorter brisk walks, which may fit into modern people’s busy schedules and benefit those who fall short of the recommended amount of activity.
Second, brisk walking also reduces the risk of CVD, including heart failure.
American scientists tracked more than 25,000 women, aged 50 to 79, for an average of 16.9 years and found that brisk walking has the effect of heart failure prevention.
Specifically, compared with casual walkers (<2 mph>3 mph), respectively, have a 27 percent and 34 percent lower risk of heart failure. That is, brisk walking has better efficacy in heart failure prevention than casual walking and walking at average speed.
On the other hand, if an individual walks less than an hour per week at a faster pace, the risk of heart failure is equivalent to that of casual walkers and average-pace walkers who walk more than two hours per week. This indicates the importance of walking pace.
Brisk walking also reduces the risk of stroke.
Another study conducted a meta-analysis of seven studies that included 13,5000 participants and came to this conclusion: Brisk walking significantly reduces the risk of stroke.
Compared to individuals in the slowest walking-pace category (median= 1.6 km/h [1 mph]), individuals in the fastest walking-pace category (median= 5.6 km/h [3.5 mph]) have a 44 percent lower risk of stroke.
There is also a linear relationship between walking pace and stroke risk: The stroke risk is decreased by 13 percent with every 1 km/h (0.6 mph) increment in walking pace.
The other study, excluding factors such as disease, with a sample size of more than 360,000 participants, has similar findings. Among adults over 65 years of age, individuals who walk slower (<3 mph> 4mph).
How to Most Effectively Take 10,000 Steps
Adults and the elderly (over 65) are advised to engage in more than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity and at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity per week. Walking at a speed of 2.5 to 4 mph is categorized as moderate-intensity activity.
However, it may be difficult for many people to have the concept of measuring speed in miles per hour.
As mentioned earlier, the stepping cadence that has the optimal effect on reducing dementia incidence is 112 steps per minute or about 3 mph (= 4.84 km/h = 1.34 m/s). Roughly speaking, walking about two steps per second is a relatively fast speed and cadence. With this cadence, walking for 30 minutes daily, five days a week, will meet the weekly recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise.
Furthermore, for people with limited time and physical strength, a daily 30-minute brisk walk can almost achieve the basic target of 3,800 steps per day proposed in the study, therefore effectively decreasing dementia risk. The remaining steps can be taken at a slower pace to complete the 10,000-step walk.
Those who are physically unable to walk briskly for 30 minutes, in the beginning, can start with a shorter period of time, and gradually increase the brisk walking time by five minutes weekly to allow the body to adapt by degrees. It is also possible to combine brisk walking and slow walking, in which the accruing brisk walking time is 30 minutes.
Before starting brisk walking, a 5-minute slow walk to warm up ankles and knee joints is required. After the brisk walk, five to 10 minutes of physical relaxation can gradually slow down the heart rate and breathing.
References
[1] del Pozo Cruz B, Ahmadi MN, Lee I, Stamatakis E. Prospective Associations of Daily Step Counts and Intensity With Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence and Mortality and All-Cause Mortality. JAMA Intern Med. Published online September 12, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.4000 [2] del Pozo Cruz B, Ahmadi M, Naismith SL, Stamatakis E. Association of Daily Step Count and Intensity With Incident Dementia in 78 430 Adults Living in the UK. JAMA Neurol. 2022;79(10):1059–1063. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.2672 [3] CELIS-MORALES, CARLOS A.1; GRAY, STUART1; PETERMANN, FANNY1; ILIODROMITI, STAMATINA1; WELSH, PAUL1; LYALL, DONALD M.2; ANDERSON, JANA2; PELLICORI, PIERPAOLO3; MACKAY, DANIEL F.2; PELL, JILL P.2; SATTAR, NAVEED1; GILL, JASON M. R.1. Walking Pace Is Associated with Lower Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: March 2019 – Volume 51 – Issue 3 – p 472-480doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001795 [4] Miremad MM, Lin X, Rasla S, El Meligy A, Roberts MB, Laddu D, Allison M, Martin LW, Shadyab AH, Manson JAE, Chlebowski R, Panjrath G, LaMonte MJ, Liu S, Eaton CB. The association of walking pace and incident heart failure and subtypes among postmenopausal women. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022 May;70(5):1405-1417. doi: 10.1111/jgs.17657. Epub 2022 Jan 20. PMID: 35048361. [5] M. Quan, P. Xun. Walking pace and the risk of stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. J Sport Health Sci, 9 (2020), pp. 521-529 [6] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.028064 [7] https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/age-chart.html [8] https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/pdf/pa_intensity_table_2_1.pdf
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Flora Zhao is a health reporter for The Epoch Times. Have a tip? Email her at: [email protected]
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