Walking is one of the most natural and cheapest ways to stay healthy, helping to control weight, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and also helping to improve cardiovascular health. A brisk walk of 1.6 kilometers can burn up to 100 calories. It is worth mentioning that the walking speed reflects the health of the human body to a certain extent, and can even predict the length of human life. Go fast, maybe live longer!
Walking is a suitable exercise for all ages, many people wear a sports bracelet or pedometer to calculate their usual steps, but there is a feeling: although they walk tens of thousands of steps a day, they do not feel the health effect of walking. This may be because the intensity of walking is not enough, and the benefits to the body are not obvious. But multiple studies have shown that people who walk faster are physically better and are likely to live longer.
Studies have shown that people who "walk fast" live longer!
In a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, titled "Mortality risk comparing walking pace to handgrip strength and a healthy lifestyle: A UK Biobank study," researchers followed up with the study and found that people who walked slower than they walked. People who walk faster have a survival advantage.
Figure 1 Research results (Source: [1])
The researchers followed 460696 subjects, and during the median follow-up period of 7 years, there were 3808 deaths in women and 6783 deaths in men. After adjusting to various other bad lifestyle habits, those who walk faster have a significant survival advantage than those who walk slowly. People who follow an unhealthy lifestyle and walk faster have a higher 10-year estimated survival rate than those who follow a healthy lifestyle and walk slower. It is worth mentioning that BMI altered the association between male walking speed and their survival advantage, and the maximum survival benefit of brisk walking was observed in people with lower body weight.
Song Yuetao, director of the Health and Medical Care Integration Research Office of Beijing Geriatric Hospital, also pointed out that the speed of walking can predict the length of life. He said that walking fast shows that the human heart and lung function is better [2]. Under normal circumstances, the normal person's heart rate is between 60-100 beats per minute, and the heart needs strong support when walking, if a person's cardiopulmonary function is weak, then it is difficult to improve the walking speed. And its life expectancy may not be very optimistic.
Walking fast is good for health and has a scientific basis
First, the walking speed is fast, and the aging rate is slower
The Duke University research team published a research paper titled "Association of Neurocognitive and Physical Function With Gait Speed in Midlife" at JAMA Network Open. By tracking 1,037 people born during the same period, the researchers eventually found that walking speed in middle age can be used as an indicator of brain and body aging [3].
Figure 2 Research results (Source: JAMA Network Open)
In this study, the researchers tracked various physical indicators of the population born between April 1972 and March 1973, including intelligence, language, exercise, blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipids, respiratory system and other bodily functions and physiological health. At age 45, the researchers also assessed their physical well-being, including walking speed, brain imaging, cognitive function, and facial aging.
The study found that:
1. Compared with people who walk fast, people who walk slowly have poor lung, teeth and immune system conditions, poor grasping power and balance, and poor hand-eye coordination;
2. People who walk slowly are more likely to age their brains, have smaller brain size and surface area, and the thickness of the cerebral cortex is thinner, and cognitive ability declines faster;
3. People who walk slowly are also "facially older."
Second, walking speed is fast, which is beneficial to cardiovascular health
In a study published in the European Heart Journal titled "Association of walking pace and handgrip strength with all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: a UK Biobank observational study" (Figure 3), After a series of studies and analyses, the researchers found that the risk of all-cause death and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease in middle-aged people who walked slowly were about twice as high as those who walked faster [4].
Figure 3 Research results (Source: European Heart Journal)
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 230,670 women and 190057 men, including BMI, walking speed, smoking status, alcohol use, and more. After adjusting the risk factors, they found that the speed of walking is closely related to the human heart-lung function adaptation, and the people who walk fast have stronger ability to adapt to the heart and lungs. Moreover, people who walk slowly increased their risk of cardiovascular death and all-cause death by about 70% compared with those who walked faster. [4]
If you want to walk quickly and healthily, the following things need to be paid attention to
First, the right way to walk fast
1. Raise your head and chest
The lower back is straight, the neck and shoulders are relaxed, the abdomen is gently retracted, the jaw is slightly adducted, and the eyes are level forward, so that the ears, shoulders and hips are kept on the same vertical line.
2. Swing your arms
The arms are based on the shoulder joints, and the natural swing is carried out before and after, and it is best to achieve "no shoulders in front, but not waist in the back".
3. Foothold posture
You can try to shift the center of gravity to the forefoot with a rapid rolling arch after the heel has landed, or you can use the midfoot or forefoot landing position. No matter which part of the foot lands first, it is necessary to make small steps and gently land to avoid too heavy steps and too large steps when falling.
4. Control the time and rhythm
The rhythm of walking should be based on their own physical condition, patients with high blood pressure, heart disease and the like can not carry out high-intensity exercise, when walking need to control their rhythm, to avoid causing discomfort to their own body.
Second, brisk walking is not for everyone
For healthy people, brisk walking is indeed a good way to prolong life, but not everyone is suitable for brisk walking. For a small group of people, brisk walking can even cause some burden on the body, such as arthritis patients with bone joint damage, osteoporosis patients, knee patients, and other patients with some underlying medical conditions. Even healthy people, if they walk at a speed that is not suitable for them, may cause physical damage. For example, bone and joint injuries, muscle injuries, visceral injuries and so on.
Therefore, it is very important to choose the most suitable walking speed for yourself, on the one hand, you can choose your own suitable walking speed according to your heart rate; on the other hand, you can also choose the walking speed according to your own movement state, such as whether you have accelerated breathing, slight sweating, slight breathing and other characteristics when walking.
The speed of walking reflects the health of the body to a certain extent, the physical fitness is good, and the life expectancy will be longer. A number of studies have found that walking speed has many benefits for human health, and fast walking is a medium-intensity exercise that helps to lose weight, while also improving cardiopulmonary function, promoting blood circulation, and improving the "three highs" problem. So, get up and down!
Written by | Muzijiu
Typography | Luna
End
Resources:
[1] Zaccardi F, Franks PW, Dudbridge F, et al. Mortality risk comparing walking pace to handgrip strength and a healthy lifestyle: A UK Biobank study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2021 Jul 10;28(7):704-712. doi: 10.1177/2047487319885041. PMID: 34247229.
[3] Rasmussen LJH, Caspi A, Ambler A, et al. Association of Neurocognitive and Physical Function With Gait Speed in Midlife. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Oct 2;2(10):e1913123. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.13123. PMID: 31603488; PMCID: PMC6804027.
[4] Yates T, Zaccardi F, Dhalwani NN, et al. Association of walking pace and handgrip strength with all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: a UK Biobank observational study. Eur Heart J. 2017 Nov 14;38(43):3232-3240. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehx449. PMID: 29020281; PMCID: PMC5837337.
This article is a biological exploration original, welcome to forward and share. If any other media or website needs to be reprinted, the source of biological exploration must be indicated in front of the main text.