a shoeprint in the sand
Image by Andrew Martin

In This Article:

  • How can walking improve overall health and longevity?
  • Why is walking one of the best exercises for brain health?
  • What are the evidence-based benefits of daily walking?
  • How does walking impact gut health and digestion?
  • What’s the ideal step count for maximum health benefits?

7 Walking Benefits: Boost Health in Just 30 Minutes a Day

Michael J. Gelb

 photo of Bruce Fertmanby Michael J. Gelb and Bruce Fertman.

When the sun begins to set and the weather is pleasant, Italians throughout the country enjoy the tradition of the passeggiata, a gentle, relaxed, dignified stroll along the main street or town square. Leonardo da Vinci loved this ritual, and we can imagine, as the first art historian Giorgio Vasari records, that Leonardo walked with a sense of beauty, power, and “infinite grace.”

The maestro loved to walk through the streets of Florence, Milan, and Rome, but he especially praised the virtue of walking in nature and generated many of his ideas while ambling through the countryside and strolling by the sea. More than five hundred years ago, before anyone could fly, Leonardo invented the parachute. He also invented the snorkel and flippers to help swimmers, and yes, a pedometer to measure the distance of his walks.

Thomas Jefferson, the genius who crafted the phrase that reflects our universal quest for the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, praised walking as the best possible form of exercise, and yes, he also invented a pedometer to keep track of his mileage on his daily walks around Charlottesville, Virginia. Popularly known as Tomish-meters, these instruments were initially used by long-distance hikers, but with the advent of contemporary information technology, anyone with a smartphone or Fitbit can keep a daily count of their steps that is usually accurate within plus or minus 5 percent.

Counting Your Steps?

Though measuring the number of steps we take every day can help us keep fit, our focus is more on the way we take those steps. We would, however, be remiss if we didn’t address the popular, and inaccurate, notion that 10,000 steps a day is the right prescription to gain the extraordinary health benefits that come from walking.


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The prescription of 10,000 steps a day emerged just before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Dr. Iwao Ohya, director of a prominent medical clinic, decided “that modern life was making Japan sluggish. Escalators, lifts, cars, and richer food were wonderful symbols of economic rise, but hell on the waistline.”

Dr. Ohya expressed his concern about the Japanese population’s lack of fitness to Jiro Kato, an engineer and clockmaker. Inspired, Kato produced the manpo-kei — the ten-thousand-step meter — that soon gave rise to the Japan 10,000-Step Walking Association, and a mythology was born.

The good news is that the latest research suggests that you need only about 7,500 steps a day to get astonishing health benefits. Eva Selhub, MD, author of Resilience for Dummies, explains, “It’s difficult to overstate the benefits of walking; just 7,500 steps per day will help you function better, physically, mentally, emotionally, and will greatly increase your chances of living a long, healthy life.”

W.A.L.K.I.N.G.

Walking is one of the most scientifically researched human activities, and as Dr. Selhub emphasizes, it is difficult to overstate the benefits, including:

  • Weight regulation
  • Arterial flexibility
  • Longevity
  • Kidney health
  • Immunity
  • Neuroplasticity
  • Gut health

W.A.L.K.I.N.G. is a mnemonic acronym to help you remember these evidence-based benefits.

Weight regulation. The simplest, easiest, and most enjoyable way to regulate your weight is to increase the number of steps you take every day and to gradually quicken your pace. If you would like to walk your way toward your ideal body weight, then you’ll accelerate your progress if you enjoy a walk first thing in the morning before breakfast and again after dinner. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to work or the store when possible, and get up from your desk and walk around during phone calls. Prevention magazine sums it up in the headline of a recent article, “Walking Is the Secret to Weight Loss.”

Arterial flexibility. Arterial stiffness is a critical predictor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. A meta-analysis of the research on the effect of walking in promoting arterial flexibility shows that people who walk fewer than 5,000 steps a day generally have stiffer arteries, compared to those who take 7,500 steps every day.

Longevity. Decades of research make it vividly clear that if you walk more, you’ll live longer. Along with a healthy diet, loving relationships, and a sense of meaning or purpose, daily exercise, especially walking, is one of the key predictors of longevity. Epidemiologist Amanda Paluch has led several metastudies on the effects of walking and concludes that “taking more steps a day helps lower the risk of premature death....More steps per day are better for your health.” How many steps do we need to live longer? Paluch advises, “The benefit in terms of mortality risk levels off [at] around 6,000 to 8,000 for older adults and 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults.”

Kidney health. The American Society of Nephrology reports that walking may have “profound benefits” for those suffering from kidney disease: “Among patients with chronic kidney disease who were followed for an average of 1.3 years, those who walked for exercise were 33% less likely to die and 21% less likely to need dialysis or a kidney transplant.” In 2022 the Journal of Renal Nutrition published a study stating, “Adults with chronic kidney disease who walked between 7,000 and 12,000 steps a day reported high health-related quality of life.” Jiachuan Xiong, who led the research effort explains, “Recent studies have shown that walking, as a daily form of exercise...plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of life of patients with CKD.”

Immunity. Walking is an ideal exercise for boosting immunity. Daily walking helps to protect against colds, flu, pneumonia, and many other ailments. A thirty-minute walk elevates levels of the protective white blood cells that serve as your body’s defense mechanism against many pathogens. The immune-boosting effects of a thirty-minute walk last, on average, about three hours, so it’s important to make walking a daily habit. One study of a thousand adults, undertaken during the height of flu season, found that those who walked thirty minutes a day five or more times a week reported 43 percent fewer sick days compared to those who were sedentary.

Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the revolutionary theory that your brain is designed to improve with use. Michael Merzenich, called the father of neuroplasticity, is the author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life. He explains, “Our brains are constantly evolving, even in old age, and we have the power to positively influence this process.” Daily walking, especially in nature, is one of the best ways to generate this positive influence. Loads of research validates this notion; here are a few representative examples. A study by Agnieszka Burzynska, professor of neuroscience and human development, concluded that older men and women who walked daily over a six-month period “showed improvements in white matter and memory, while those who danced or did stretching exercises did not.”

In a report in the journal Neuropsychology, Matthew Calamia and his colleagues demonstrated that increasing step counts is “robustly associated” with maintaining cognitive function as we age. Theories abound on why walking is so good for maintaining mental acuity. The simplest is that walking keeps your arteries flexible, and flexible arteries allow better blood supply and therefore better oxygen delivery to your brain, so you can keep your mind sharp as you age.

Gut health. Walking is good for your digestion. It helps regulate your gut microbiome, optimizes your metabolism, soothes irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and eases acid reflux. It also helps prevent colon cancer. Why is walking so good for your gut? There are many reasons, but the simplest is that the rhythmic, natural flow of your steps gently encourages a more harmonious peristaltic action of your intestines and entire digestive tract.

Leaving the Sedentary Lifestyle

Jodie Katz, an integrative medicine specialist, adds, “Beyond the well-researched health benefits expressed in the W.A.L.K.I.N.G. acronym, there are many more that are particularly helpful as people age, including improvements in bone density, mood, and overall mental health, better sleep, and reduction in occurrence or recurrence of many forms of cancer.”

Commenting on the number of steps necessary to receive these benefits, Dr. Katz observes, “The most statistically significant decline in all-cause mortality comes when those who have been sedentary begin to walk just 3 to 4 thousand steps a day.” She emphasizes, “When patients who were sedentary begin walking every day, their health improves significantly. If physicians regularly prescribed ‘walk thirty minutes a day,’ most people would ultimately need fewer prescriptions for pharmaceuticals.”

Copyright 2024 by Michael J. Gelb and Bruce Fertman.
Reprinted with permission from New World Library

Article Source:

BOOK: Walking Well

Walking Well: A New Approach for Comfort, Vitality, and Inspiration in Every Step
by Michael J. Gelb and Bruce Fertman.

Walking is good for you. It can regulate weight, improve sleep, elevate mood, transform stress, and boost creativity. Most people want to walk more. But what if the key isn’t just to walk more, but to walk better? 

Walking Well presents a three-part journey that will guide you to discover more comfort, vitality, and inspiration in every step. Filled with simple, practical guidance from authors with over a hundred years of collective experience in teaching people how to move well, this book not only improves how we walk but reveals how much is possible for us once we know how to walk well.
 

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as an Audiobook and a Kindle edition.

About the Authors

Michael J. Gelb is a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, executive coaching, and innovative leadership. He is a fifth-degree black belt in aikido and a gifted teacher of tai chi and the Alexander Technique. He is also a professional juggler who performed with the Rolling Stones. He is the author of seventeen books — including the international bestseller How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci — which have been translated into 25 languages and sold more than one million copies. More information at MichaelGelb.com and WalkingWell.com.photo of Bruce Fertman

Bruce Fertman brings sixty years of study as a movement artist and educator to his work, having trained in gymnastics, modern dance, ballet, contact improvisation, the Alexander Technique, tai chi chuan, aikido, chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony), Argentine tango, and kyudo (Zen archery). For the past thirty years Fertman has taught in Europe, Asia, and the Americas helping people experience the interconnectedness of physical and spiritual life. For more information, go to GraceOfSense.com and WalkingWell.com.

Article Recap:

Walking daily, even for just 30 minutes, offers transformative health benefits, including improved weight regulation, cardiovascular health, neuroplasticity, and immunity. It supports better digestion, helps prevent chronic diseases, and enhances longevity. Research shows that even walking 3,000 to 7,500 steps can significantly reduce health risks. Walking connects mind and body, fostering mental clarity and emotional well-being. It’s a simple, powerful way to leave a sedentary lifestyle behind and embrace vibrant health.

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