Practicing physical activity every day is excellent for your health. And among all the sports that we can do, there is one that can suit almost everyone.
Another advantage: its benefits for cardiovascular health appear quickly, after only fifteen minutes of practice.
An activity to do at least fifteen minutes a day
It’s about walking. Indeed, according to the conclusions of a large international study, walking – and more precisely the continuous duration of walking – is the element that matters most to obtain the maximum benefits.
For this work, researchers from the University of Sydney and Universidad Europea followed 33,560 adults aged 40 to 79 in the United Kingdom, walking on average less than 8,000 steps per day.
Their results, published in Annals of Internal Medicinerevealed that people who walked for at least fifteen minutes without stopping had a lower risk of heart disease and death than those who walked several times in short bursts of a few minutes.
A single continuous walk is better than several small ones
In detail, we learn that the participants were distributed according to the average duration of their walks:
- Less than 5 minutes (43%);
- From 5 to 10 minutes (33.5%);
- 10 to 15 minutes (15.5%);
- And 15 minutes or more (8%).
This last group, that of “long-term” walkers, presented the lowest cardiovascular risk, including among the least active people. The researchers adjusted their results for age, weight, smoking and cholesterol levels, confirming the positive impact of longer walks on heart health.
As Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, co-author of the study, points out, ““We tend to focus on the number of steps, but neglect the crucial role of the how: walking longer at a time, even slowly, provides real cardiovascular benefits.”
Walk for fifteen minutes at a good pace: Dr Kierzek’s advice
For Dr. Gérald Kierzek, it is not necessary to aim for 10,000 steps per day to maintain your heart.
“Walking at least fifteen minutes a day at a brisk pace provides significant cardiovascular benefits” he recalls.
But you still have to adopt the right look. “You have to walk at a speed called “moderate to fast”, where breathing accelerates: you are out of breath, but not to the point of being unable to speak. If breathing is cut off and speech is impossible, the rhythm is too intense” specifies the doctor.
According to him, these fifteen minutes of active walking allow:
- Improve blood circulation and reduce blood pressure;
- to regulate cholesterol (increase in good HDL, decrease in LDL);
- strengthen the heart muscle;
- to reduce chronic inflammation;
- reduce the risk of arrhythmia or stroke;
- And to promote weight and metabolism control.
How to incorporate more movement into your daily life?
Good news: brisk walking can be easily integrated into everyday life. Dr. Kierzek recommends a few simple actions to stay active: walking during your daily commute (get off one stop earlier, prefer the stairs), but also avoid sitting for too long by getting up regularly.
“Practicing complementary physical activities such as gardening, dancing or cycling is also interesting” he assures.
As for walking, he advises favoring varied terrain (slopes, stairs, paths) to build endurance. The doctor finally recalls that “every movement counts“So even light activity, repeated daily, helps maintain the heart and reduce long-term cardiovascular risks.