“Japanese walking” can improve blood pressure and muscle strength

Almost 20 years ago, Japanese researchers developed a “intervals walking training”, a simple routine that alternates between slow walking and fast walking. Now known as “Japanese march”, the practice has been demonstrated to improve aerobic capacity (VO2max), lower blood pressure and help regulate blood sugar.

What is Japanese walking?

This is how you can practice Japanese walking:

• Three minutes of fast walking (around 70% of your maximum aerobic capacity)
• Three minutes of slow walking (around 40% of your maximum aerobic capacity)
• Repeat the cycle for a total of 30 minutes per session

More than 200 adults, with an average age of 63, participated in the study. The researchers found that the interval walking improved blood pressure, the muscle strength of the thighs and the maximum aerobic capacity.

Is Japanese walking better than ordinary walking?

Intervals is “one of the most neglected but incredibly effective tools to improve long -term health, especially in adults of middle and older age,” said Ramit Singh Sambyal, MD, general doctor of metropolitan hospitals in the south of Delhi, India, specializing in preventive medicine and life medicine.

While many people think that walking alone is sufficient, its advantages are often caught.

“This is where the interval walk moves the equation,” said Sambyal. “By simply alternating between short periods of fast walking and slower recovery, we engage the cardiovascular system in a much more dynamic way.”

He added that the interval walk is easy to adopt, does not require any special equipment or access the gymnasium, and “defies the body just enough to trigger a metabolic change”.

Who benefits the most from Japanese walking?

Sambyal said the best Japanese walking candidates include people:

• Feel bored or stuck with regular walking routines
• Have light joint problems and cannot manage a high impact activity
• Try to reverse early metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance
• You want to waste weight but fight to find time or motivation for the gymnasium

The interval walk can increase the relative intensity of walking without putting an excess of stress on the joints, muscles and tendons from the lower body.

“This is a useful strategy for people who cannot tolerate activities such as race or hike due to injury, weakness or balance problems,” Kevin McGuinness, physiotherapist at the National Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC.

Should intervals be 3 minutes?

In the original study, the researchers chose three-minute intervals because the older participants were tired beyond this point, noted McGuinness. “There is probably nothing magical in the intervals of three minutes specifically, but it is the most frequently studied protocol,” he said.

“You will probably get some more improvements with shorter intervals if you could not tolerate three -minute intervals to start,” added McGuinness. “It would be perfectly reasonable to start with three minutes of normal walking followed by one minute of fast walking and to increase the length of the fast walking interval as your fitness improves.”

Interval march can offer mental health benefits

Interval march can also offer health health benefits, said Anahita Kalianivala, PHD, clinical psychologist in Reno, Nevada. Some of his clients feel frustrated at no longer being able to engage in physical activities that they once appreciated, or that they crash with exhaustion thereafter.

“Strategies and interval walking can be surprisingly effective in helping the nervous system relearn how to tolerate activity,” Kalianivala said.

Kalianivala explains that a common technique for managing chronic pain in cognitive behavioral therapy is called time-based activity stimulation. “On the surface, it may well look like breaks,” she said. “But in practice, it is a much more intentional system: stop before the crash, go into recovery mode, then go back to another plan of planned activity.”

“This structure helps the activity of the body and the brain with the safety and the ability to continue in relation to the danger and the need to crash,” added Kalianivala.

How to start, even if you are out of shape

If you want to try Japanese walking, you can start with shorter walks than the three -minute intervals used in the original study to help reduce the routine.

Olabisi Badmus, MD, MPH, assistant professor of affiliation of the family and preventive medicine at the school of medicine at the University of South Carolina, said that he encourages patients to set “achievable objectives”. It often starts with five to eight minutes of walking at a comfortable rate followed by 30 seconds of fast walking, repeated for a total of 30 minutes.

“Patients can gradually strengthen confidence, self-efficiency and momentum to a long-term behavior change,” said Badmus.