Interval Walking: From Good to Better
When you take a walk, there is a lot going on with every step. Blood vessels widen; nitric oxide rises; arteries become more elastic. Genetic pathways linked to immunity, metabolism and cellular repair are activated. You take deeper breaths, oxygen and blood flow, and you feel good.
“There is no chronic disease that exercise doesn’t touch,” says Robert Sallis, a clinical professor of family medicine and founder of Exercise Is Medicine. “It makes so much sense that this ought to be a first-line prescription.”
It’s so simple! You don’t have to learn anything; you don’t need access to special facilities; you don’t need special gear. Simply lace up, step out the door, and move at a pace that feels right to you. This simplicity makes it powerful.
The body is built for movement. We feel better, we fight disease better, and we live better when we move. When we spend too much time sitting—and most of us do—we are not doing what we were built to do, and we decline. Researchers estimate that the least active among us could be dying as much as 11 years earlier than necessary. In a Harvard Health study, the most active Americans over 40 accumulated up to 15,000 steps a day. If the wider population reached that same level of daily movement, average life expectancy would rise by more than five years.
Yet Americans walk less than almost anyone else. A 2023 YouGov survey of people from 12 countries found Americans had the least favorable view of walking. Modern life has pushed walking to the margins. Rural areas stretch for miles without sidewalks. Suburbs are built for cars rather than people, with few crosswalks and buildings spaced so far apart that walking becomes impractical. People in big cities also have to deal with safety concerns, sitting jobs, tight schedules and poor air quality.
The situation is certainly not ideal for movement. Will you simply accept that—or address it?
In a letter to supporters on March 2, 1967, educator Herbert W. Armstrong described facing a personal health crisis in the middle of an exhausting schedule. His response was decisive action:
I have changed my entire daily routine—my entire life. The fasting and prayer has resulted in almost completely removing all signs of the heart condition or high blood pressure. For four years I have had to live knowing I could drop dead at any second! Now pounds have been taken off. Now I can take longer, more vigorous walks. Now I am taking them, three times a day—regardless of circumstances which might try to prevent! … My life from now will be far more active—and that new routine is already in effect and becoming well established.
It’s easy to underestimate what you can do for your own well-being, especially in a society conditioned to believe that medical intervention is always required. But taking charge of your own health is not only possible, it can also yield dramatic results. Each of us has the individual responsibility to care for our bodies and protect our health through preventive actions.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, once called walking “the closest thing we have to a wonder drug.” Imagine if a pharmaceutical compound had such astounding effects!
If you are ready to take advantage of what walking can offer, start now. The changes won’t come overnight, but give it a few weeks and you will feel the difference.
If you currently do zero exercise, beginning with a walking habit is perfect.
Keep it simple. Walk at a pace and duration that matches your health and your life. The main point is simply to move more.
If you’ve been walking for a while and your results have stalled, then interval walking may be the next logical step. It’s a structured pattern of faster walking bursts followed by slower recovery periods.
To try this fitness method, switch between three minutes of relaxed walking (about 40 percent effort) and three minutes of brisk walking (about 70 percent). Do this for 30 minutes, four times a week.
You’re not just exercising for the sake of it. You’re trying to improve your quality of life, and this is where the improvements appear. In a five-month study of older adults, those who practiced interval walking saw striking gains: 13 percent more leg-extension strength, 17 percent more leg-flexion strength and 8 percent more aerobic capacity, along with lower systolic blood pressure. Taken together, the effect is profound. vumc News reported that this approach is linked to a roughly 20 percent reduction in all-cause mortality.
It comes back to the basics. In an ideal world, you’d move often and fit in two intentional walks of 10 to 15 minutes a day. But even a 2-minute stroll is worth taking. In the end, your exercise habits determine whether you feel strong and energetic or weak and sluggish. You choose the causes; you choose the results.