You’ve probably heard this phrase many times before: research suggests that exercise is linked to a longer life.
What’s more surprising is that a tiny amount of activity could have a noticeable effect, according to a study published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine which included more than 13,000 women with an average age of 72 years. For these women, walking just 4,000 steps one day a week was enough to start seeing a decreased risk of dying or developing heart disease during the study. The results suggest that walking a mile or two once a week is still beneficial, even if your other days are less active.
Small steps, big change
Fitness apps and wearable trackers often set users a goal of reaching 10,000 steps per day. Yet many experts agree that this figure is arbitrary. Amanda Paluch, a kinesiology professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies step counts as a measure of exercise, says this popular reference appears to have been inspired by a Japanese pedometer made decades ago. “This has not been supported by any scientific evidence,” she says.
Still, steps are a practical way to think about physical activity, which is why researchers have worked to understand exactly how many steps per day are linked to better health.
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In the new study, participants wore step counters for a week and researchers recorded the number of days each woman took steps greater than 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 and 7,000. Then, for more than a decade, they tracked whether the women developed cardiovascular disease or died.
The goal was to determine whether even a relatively small number of steps, recorded over just a few days, would affect women’s health, says study author Dr. Rikuta Hamaya, professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Women who walked 4,000 steps once or twice a week had a 27% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and a 26% lower risk of dying during the study period, compared to those who didn’t, a substantial difference.
Getting out of an all or nothing mindset
The new study suggests that “it’s not all or nothing…even starting with just one day can be incredibly meaningful for your health,” said Paluch, who was not involved in the work. The findings are similar to his own previous research, suggesting that even 6,000 steps per day are linked to a lower risk of heart disease in adults around age 60. The new research also echoes other teams’ work on “Weekend Warriors,” or people who exercise for a day or two a week but see better health outcomes than those who don’t exercise.
Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, agrees that even a modest amount of exercise can have significant health benefits. “[That finding] allows us to empower patients by saying…even if you don’t exercise or walk every day, you still benefit,” he says.
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Other factors could influence the link between movement and health. Researchers cannot conclude, based on observation of study participants, that movement definitively led to better health outcomes. Pre-existing frailty could also have been at play. Although the researchers did their best to control for this, it’s still possible that some of the people who walked very little did so because they already weren’t in the best health.
Additionally, Hamaya points out, this study only followed older, primarily white women. More diverse studies with younger people are needed to determine the effects of step counts on other groups.
Yet as studies suggesting that even small amounts of exercise are beneficial continue to mount, the latest findings are an encouraging sign that, if you’re considering increasing your activity level, even a little can make a difference.
