TIME – Walking has many demonstrated health benefits: improving heart health, lowering blood sugar, burning calories for weight loss, and improving muscle tone.
But most of the research on walking has focused on how long people walk, not how quickly.
Recent studies have hinted that altering your walking pace—which has become popular as Japanese walking (also known as interval walking)—might have additional benefits.
In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers led by Dr. Wei Zheng, professor and director of the Vanderbilt University Epidemiology Center, studied whether walking pace made a difference in people’s health.
They studied 86,000 people who reported how much they walked each day, as well as other health-related activities such as their diet and whether they smoked or drank alcohol.
Over 17 years, the researchers tracked their death rates and correlated mortality to their walking pattern.
They found that people who walked at a faster pace for at least 15 minutes a day had a lower risk of dying during the study period than those who walked more slowly.
Both groups lowered their risk of death during that time, but the reduction was more impressive among those who regularly walked at a brisker pace.
While those findings may not be entirely surprising, Zheng says the trial focused on a group of people who aren’t typically part of exercise studies …
