Walk briskly for 3 minutes. Walk easily for 3 minutes. Repeat until you have done five brisk rounds and five easy ones.
That is a 30-minute walk, and it is the pattern researchers in Japan tested in a trial of 246 adults averaging 63. Over five months, the interval walkers gained more leg strength and fitness than people who walked steadily.
This is information, not medical advice. If you take blood pressure medicine or have a heart condition, check with your doctor before trying brisk intervals.
What the method is
The researchers called it interval walking training. “Japanese walking” is the nickname the method picked up afterward.
The trial’s schedule had two speeds. The fast phase was above 70% of peak aerobic capacity for walking. That is the highest rate at which your body can use oxygen while walking, measured with a calorimeter test.
The slow phase was about 40%.
- Fast for 3 minutes, slow for 3 minutes, as one round.
- Five or more rounds per walk.
- At least 4 days a week.
- For 5 months.
Nothing in the method needs a gym, a track or special shoes. For a home version, a timer and a safe path are enough.
What the trial found
The trial came from Shinshu University’s medical school in Matsumoto, Japan.
It appeared in the medical journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2007, written by Nemoto and colleagues.
The 60 men and 186 women, average age 63, were split into three groups.
One did no training, one walked steadily at a moderate effort, and one did the intervals.
Compared with the steady walkers, the interval group gained more on every strength and fitness measure.
The interval group’s own gains:
- Knee extension strength up 13%.
- Knee flexion strength up 17%.
- Peak aerobic capacity up 8% on a bike and 9% walking.
Resting systolic blood pressure, the top number, also fell more in the interval group.
Walking at a steady pace can also lower blood pressure.
The interval result is a gain on top of a walk that already helps.
Why the results come with a catch
Only part of the interval group hit its targets.
Eleven of 19 men and 31 of 68 women met them. The trial also lasted five months, and an accelerometer tracked the interval walkers’ effort.
Most home walkers will not have that monitoring.
The trial’s fast phase was set by a measured peak aerobic capacity. Step count and the talk test, below, stand in for it.
How to tell brisk without a lab
A cadence of about 100 steps a minute marks moderate effort for adults in their 60s and 70s.
That comes from the CADENCE-Adults study of 98 adults aged 61 to 85. Its authors give 100 as a rounded, practical figure.
Count your steps for 30 seconds during a brisk minute. About 50 steps matches 100 a minute.
Treat that as a floor for the brisk minutes, not a ceiling.
If you cannot count, use your breath. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, federal exercise advice, say moderate effort lets you talk but not sing.
At vigorous effort, a person generally cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.
Brisk stretches can also sit inside a walk you already take.
If 3 minutes is too long
Shorter brisk bursts, which the trial did not test, are a gentler way in.
- Brisk for 1 minute, easy for 2 minutes.
- Move to brisk 2, easy 2 once that feels comfortable.
- Then brisk 3, easy 3.
- Lengthen the brisk minutes toward 3 before you go past 4 rounds.
Two weeks at 1 minute is fine.
If you are not yet walking 20 minutes at an easy pace, the four-week beginner walking plan is the better place to start.
A first-week schedule
The trial used four or more days a week. This first week uses three brisk days.
- Monday: 3 rounds of 1 minute brisk, 2 minutes easy.
- Tuesday: rest, or an easy walk.
- Wednesday: 4 rounds of 1 minute brisk, 2 minutes easy.
- Thursday: rest.
- Friday: 3 rounds of 2 minutes brisk, 2 minutes easy.
- Saturday and Sunday: easy walking, or rest.
Leave an easy or rest day between brisk sessions. Sharp, new or one-sided pain means stop, not push on.
Begin and end each walk with a few easy minutes. Those do not count as rounds.
You need no new gear. A phone timer and the shoes you already own will do.
What to write down
After each session, write one line: the date, how many rounds you finished, how long each brisk stretch was, and whether you could still say a few words at the end of it.