Walking isn’t just a good way to stay in shape, it benefits your heart health
Walking is great for your heart health, but incorporating interval training and reducing sedentary time can deliver even greater returns with every step.
As the days grow warmer and life beckons, it can be difficult to find time for ourselves. But carving out as little as 30 minutes a day for a moderately paced walk can help to improve your wellbeing and even your heart health.
This is week two of The Heart Foundation’s Walking Program, which is designed to get more Australians moving by offering tips and motivation to anyone who signs up to one of its free programs.
According to Dr Matthew Ahmadi, a senior research fellow at the University of Sydney and deputy director of the Mackenzie wearables research hub, going to the gym is great but “any activity is better than no activity”, and he advises anyone trying to improve their fitness to remember “it’s a marathon, not a sprint”.
That’s particularly true if you rarely do physical exercise or lead a particularly sedentary lifestyle; build up slowly by walking for 10 to 15 minutes at a time and listen to your body when it comes to increasing your pace and stop when you need to. It’s also important to choose a suitable time of day to exercise and consider things like UV rating and sun protection, heat, light, and ensure that you stay hydrated.
If you’re wanting to get more out of your daily walks or are already doing regular physical activity, Dr Ahmadi recommends incorporating interval-style training wherever possible.
“Walking allows you to engage your cardiovascular system which, in turn, will improve your cardiovascular health and lower your risk for heart disease and stroke. Now, walking in general is great, but what we’ve also seen with wearable devices is that if you can increase your walking pace in short bursts across the day, that can lead to even greater benefits over and above your total daily step accumulation.
“That’s like going for a nice, comfortable walk to get a cup of coffee. If you can spend at least 30 to 20 seconds going for a brisk or fast-paced walk that will challenge your cardio practice even more.”
Dr Ahmadi’s research examines data from wearable devices to look for links between lifestyle behaviours including physical activity, sedentary time and sleep with non-clinical diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer.
His research shows some of the greatest benefits of increased physical activity are improved blood pressure and insulin sensitivity, which are believed to help lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, as well as enhanced fat oxidation and lipid profile.
“These are all cardiometabolic markers that, in turn, collectively, either can increase or lower your risk for long-term disease outcome like I’d say, stroke or coronary arteries or heart attack. So being particularly active, moving your body, anything that gets you moving will improve these cardio-metabolic profiles, which, in turn, can either lower or increase your risk of heart disease.”
According to the Heart Foundation, walking at least 30 minutes a day can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke by 35 per cent, and diabetes by 40 per cent.
A quick sidenote on the point of sedentary time which relates less to purposeful exercise and more to how much you generally move throughout the day. Being too sedentary is also bad for your health, so it’s important to ensure you’re doing exercise and moving around enough each day. For example, if you sit at your desk for most of the day, try to stand up and move around each hour. You could even set an alarm as a reminder or if you have a wearable device, use it to ensure you’re not too sedentary. Again, this is in addition to any exercise you do.
Australian guidelines recommend adults aged 18-64 years aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical exercise each week.
Walking is a great way to improve your fitness because it is easily accessible, cheap, and you can set your own pace and continuously build your intensity. However, The Heart Foundation advises people with injury, disability or those diagnosed with heart disease or recovering from a heart attack to speak with your GP to learn how to safely build up your activity.
Above all, Dr Ahmadi says don’t get dissuaded.
“It’s also okay if you have a few bad days, because it’s more so the big picture over several weeks, several months, as long as you’re being more active on days than you’re not then that is what matters most. So, don’t be discouraged. If you have a few bad days, that’s okay.”
