Walk This Way: The Japanese Interval Walking Method That Makes Every Step Count

Walking is having a moment. Men's magazines are counting how many calories 10,000 steps burns. Women's titles are trialling the "Japanese walking method" for a month. Celebrities post "hot girl walks" and "dad walks" in equal measure. For once, the trend deserves the hype.

Do you really need 10,000 steps?

The 10,000 figure began as a marketing number, not a scientific one. The better evidence comes from a 2022 meta-analysis in The Lancet Public Health (Paluch and colleagues), which pooled 15 international cohorts. More daily steps meant a progressively lower risk of death, but the benefit levelled off. For adults aged 60 and over, it plateaued at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day. For adults under 60, it was about 8,000 to 10,000.

The HN24 take if you're on 3,000 steps, every extra thousand counts. If you're already on 9,000, you'll get more from changing how you walk than from adding more steps.

Enter interval walking

The "Japanese walking method" comes from research led by Hiroshi Nose and colleagues at Shinshu University. In a 2007 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Nemoto and colleagues), middle-aged and older adults spent five months on one of three programmes:

• Interval walking: sets of 3 minutes fast (at about 70% or more of their peak aerobic capacity) alternating with 3 minutes slow
• Continuous moderate walking
• No training

The interval walkers improved thigh muscle strength and aerobic fitness and lowered their blood pressure more than the continuous walkers, who saw little change in those measures. The protocol was designed so the walking added up to around 30 minutes or more, on at least 4 days a week.

It's not magic. It's simply intervals, the principle that elite athletes use, scaled to something you can do on a pavement.

For him

The stealth conditioning session

If you lift, interval walking is cardio that won't wreck your leg day. It's low-impact, it's easy to recover from and it lifts your heart rate into a range that builds fitness. Add a slight incline, or a weighted backpack (rucking), and the fast intervals become properly hard. It's also a smart rebuild for injured runners, and for anyone who's spent too many years on the couch.

For her

The mood-and-movement ritual

Walking's other superpower is what it does for your head. A brisk 30 minutes outdoors, in daylight, with or without a podcast, is one of the most reliable ways to break up a desk day and lower your stress. Interval walking adds structure, so a walk feels like training rather than a stroll. It's gentle on joints, it works through every life stage and it needs nothing but shoes.

How to do it

1. Warm up: 3 to 5 minutes at an easy pace.
2. Fast interval, 3 minutes: walk briskly enough that you can speak only in short sentences. On a 1 to 10 effort scale, aim for about 7.
3. Easy interval, 3 minutes: drop to a relaxed pace, at about 3 or 4 out of 10.
4. Repeat for 5 rounds, which makes 30 minutes.
5. Cool down for a few minutes.

Do it 3 to 5 times a week. To progress, swap flat routes for hills, lengthen the fast intervals or add a light backpack.

Making it work in South Africa

• Beat the heat. In summer, walk early in the morning or in the evening. Take water and wear sunscreen and a hat.
• Safety first. Choose busy, well-lit routes, parkruns (many parkrunners walk), malls, school fields or a treadmill when it isn't safe to walk alone. Walk with a friend or a club, and keep your phone tucked away.
• Stack it. Use a phone timer or a smartwatch interval setting so you don't have to clock-watch.

Where it fits in your week

Interval walking covers the "moderate-to-vigorous aerobic" part of the WHO and NHS guidelines, which call for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week. It doesn't replace strength training, so keep your two lifting sessions too.

If you have heart disease, uncontrolled blood pressure or a joint condition, check with your doctor before adding fast intervals.

Why intervals beat a steady stroll

A steady, comfortable walk is great for health, but your body adapts to it quickly. Brief, harder bouts push your heart, lungs and leg muscles beyond what they're used to, and that stimulus drives improvement. The easy intervals let you recover enough to repeat the effort. It's the same logic behind every interval session on a running track, scaled to walking pace.

If you can sing during your fast minutes, walk faster. If you can't speak at all, ease off.

A four-week progression

• Week 1: 3 rounds of 3 minutes fast and 3 minutes easy, three days a week.
• Week 2: 4 rounds, three or four days a week.
• Week 3: 5 rounds (30 minutes), four days a week.
• Week 4: 5 rounds, with one session on a hilly route or with a light backpack.

From there, keep the 30-minute format and progress the difficulty, not the time.

Rucking: the add-on that's going mainstream

Rucking means walking with a weighted backpack. It's a straightforward way to make walking harder and to build upper-back and core endurance. Start light, at around 5% of your body weight, using a well-fitted pack with the weight high and close to your back. Build up slowly. Skip it if you have back problems, unless a physio or biokineticist has cleared you.

Kit worth having

• Comfortable, supportive shoes. Old running shoes are fine for most people.
• A cap, sunscreen and a water bottle for summer.
• A free interval-timer app, or the built-in workout mode on a fitness watch.