Walk THIS way to live longer, according to longevity experts

Want to live longer? Walk. Want to boost heart and brain health, maintain a healthy weight, and reduce your risk of chronic disease? Walk. Yes, that’s right. Walking is perhaps the simplest and most effective form of low-impact exercise for overall health. Walking can also help you live longer. Yes, it's really a magic pill for longevity. But just walking won’t help. A new study has found that walking a certain way can help with longevity.

A new analysis found that the pace of the daily walk can boost longevity. The findings are published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Walking and longevity

Regular walking is linked to overall health and well-being. A novel analysis using data from the Southern Community Cohort Study, involving 79,856 predominantly low-income and Black individuals across 12 southeastern US states, found that regular walking, at a faster pace, can significantly reduce mortality. They found that walking, particularly at a brisk pace, is an effective form of physical activity for improving health.

“While the health benefits of daily walking are well-established, limited research has investigated the effects of factors such as walking pace on mortality, particularly in low-income and Black/African-American populations. Our research has shown that fast walking as little as 15 minutes a day was associated with a nearly 20% reduction in total mortality, while a smaller reduction in mortality was found in association with more than three hours of daily slow walking. This benefit remained strong even after accounting for other lifestyle factors and was consistent across various sensitivity analyses,” lead investigator Wei Zheng, MD, PhD, said, in a statement.


The researchers asked the participants to report the average time they spend every day to ‘walk slowly (such as moving around, walking at work, walking the dog, or engaging in light exercise)’ and to ‘walk fast (such as climbing stairs, brisk walking, or exercising)’. They found that the protective effect of fast walking extended to all causes of death but was most pronounced for cardiovascular diseases.

Why walking is effective

Boosts heart efficiency: Walking fastly is considered an aerobic exercise, which improves cardiac output, increases oxygen delivery, and enhances the efficiency of the heart's pumping action, leading to better overall cardiovascular health.

Reduces the risk factors of cardiovascular disease: By walking regularly at a fast pace, it reduces the risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases, such as body weight and composition, obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.

Highly accessible: Walking is a convenient, low-impact activity that can fit into the lifestyle of individuals of any age and fitness level.

“Public health campaigns and community-based programs can emphasize the importance and availability of fast walking to improve health outcomes, providing resources and support to facilitate increased fast walking within all communities. Furthermore, the findings of the reduced mortality associated with fast walking pace were supported by previous studies conducted in middle- and upper-middle-income populations. Individuals should strive to incorporate more intense physical activity into their routines, such as brisk walking or other forms of aerobic exercise,” lead author Lili Liu, MPH, added.