Long walks linked to improved heart health and longevity

Building the capacity to walk for longer periods of time can help improve cardiovascular health and heart strength. Johner Images/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Have you ever heard someone say that they like long walks on the beach? If so, they might have already uncovered one of the many secrets to longevity.

Adults who walk for longer periods, which researchers defined as longer than 10 minutes, had substantially lower risks of cardiovascular disease and premature death when compared to those participants who walk for shorter periods, according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Most studies focus on the total number of daily steps (including our previous studies), but ours shows that how you accumulate those steps matters too — especially for less active individuals,” said Dr. Borja del Pozo Cruz, the study’s first author, in an email. “This adds nuance to the ‘10,000 steps a day’ idea: even if you don’t reach that number, taking a few longer walks rather than many short, scattered steps can make a real difference for heart health and longevity.”

Nearly 31% of the world’s adult population are physically inactive and do not meet the global recommendation of getting at least 150 minutes of exercise per week.

Sedentary lifestyles are linked to a higher risk of insomnia, mortality and cardiovascular disease.

“Everyone can benefit from walking — there’s really no group for whom walking is harmful. But these particular findings are most relevant for people who are sedentary or take fewer than about 8,000 steps a day,” said del Pozo Cruz, associate professor and senior researcher at Faculty of Medicine, Health, and Sports, Universidad Europea de Madrid in Spain.

There are no shortcuts to health

“Most people can walk for a minute or two or five without much issue. But when you start getting to … 20 and 30 and 40 and 60 minutes in, it becomes a lot harder for folks, and that’s the capacity we’re really trying to build,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, a hospital in Denver. He was not involved in the study.

Regular exercise trains your muscles to pull oxygen from your blood, which reduces heart rate, inflammation and stress.

“Longer walks likely help by improving blood circulation, lowering blood pressure, and supporting glucose control — all key for heart health,” del Pozo Cruz said.

They also may increase the volume of heart stimulation, which may be needed to fully activate and engage your muscles, he added.

But like most muscles in your body, exercising for longer periods isn’t something that you can do immediately.

You can think about taking a longer walk like lifting a 100-pound (45-kilogram) dumbbell, said Freeman. “I couldn’t just go over and do it from the get-go. I’d have to build up the capacity, build up the muscle strength to get there. And the same thing is true for cardiac strength and cardio.”

So often we hear people tell us to reach a certain goal: 10,000 steps per day or 150 minutes of exercise per week. But that can be difficult to keep track of and overwhelming, especially for people who don’t live a particularly active lifestyle.

That’s why this study focuses on duration, or how long you walk.

“Pace still matters, but duration and consistency of walking bouts seem to be powerful factors. So, instead of counting every single step, people might focus on carving out short sessions of continuous walking during their day,” del Pozo Cruz said.

Building cardiac strength

The easiest method is walking, and following good walking form by standing tall with your shoulders back and swinging your arms, which can help prevent backaches, make it easy to breath and keep you balanced.

“Walking is a full body movement. It is not just about your lower body,” said CNN fitness contributor Dana Santas, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, in a previous article.

For people just starting out, you can increase duration of walks by parking farther away from your usual spot or engaging in “cozy cardio.”

“The goal still is roughly 30 minutes a day of breathless physical activity, which is an intense level for most folks,” Freeman said.

Breathless physical activity is like if you’re walking briskly and you can talk, but you can’t sing.

Other exercises that are good for heart health include wall sits and planks, or aerobic movement, like biking.

Building the capacity for longer movement is key because it “takes cardiac reserve, cardiac strength, and, of course, physical strength. And those together are pretty amazing preventatives when it comes to all sorts of heart disease, including coronary disease and high blood pressure,” Freeman said.

The findings were based on an observational study that analyzed data from over 33,000 adults in the UK Biobank. Participants were relatively inactive, which was defined as walking less than 8,000 steps per day, and the study excluded people who already had major illnesses to reduce bias.

Researchers used accelerometers to track movement and activity was only measured once during that week, so potential changes in walking habit were not tracked.

By Gina Park, CNN