Research from Shinshu University shows the free interval walking technique may help improve fitness by up to 20% and support bone health in older adults

For those aiming to enhance their health and fitness in the coming year, starting a new regime can often feel like a daunting task. However, as most medical professionals will say, even minor steps towards increased activity can significantly impact your overall health and well-being.

As reported by the MEN over the weekend, one simple and cost-free method to boost your fitness is through the Japanese walking technique, which involves alternating between fast and slow walking at set intervals.

In recent years, much has been said about striving to reach a step goal as a means of utilising walking for fitness, with many aiming to achieve a daily target of 10,000 steps to maintain health and fitness.

However, with Japanese walking, there’s no step goal – instead, you’re encouraged to walk for 30 minutes, at least four times a week, alternating between three minutes of “fast” walking and three minutes of “slow,” reports the Manchester Evening News.

You determine your own pace while employing this technique, so whatever you deem to be “fast” – experts describe it as enough to leave you feeling “out of breath” at the end of each set.

The technique, known as Japanese walking, was first developed and researched for its health benefits by experts at Shinshu University in Japan. Their medical research team found that participants who completed interval training over a five-month period improved their fitness by up to 20%.

Professor Masuki Shizue from Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine served as one of the co-researchers on the study. She highlighted that interval walking proved especially beneficial for elderly people, being a gentle exercise method that could potentially alleviate pre-existing health conditions.

According to the latest research published on the official website: “Walking is one of the easiest form of exercise for older adults. Professor Masuki and her team demonstrated that “interval walking,” which involves alternating between brisk and slow walking, can help mitigate the risk of lifestyle-related diseases.

“A large-scale survey of 234 participants who engaged in interval walking was conducted to determine whether interval walking improves bone mineral density and whether this improvement is greater among individuals with low bone mineral density. The findings of the present study revealed that interval walking is an excellent form of exercise, especially for individuals with low bone mineral density.”

The research further emphasised that because it requires no specialist kit and can be adapted to match each person’s fitness level, interval walking represents a maintainable exercise option for the majority of physically capable people. The beauty of interval walking lies in its simplicity — all you require is a decent pair of walking shoes and a way to track three minute intervals, whether that’s a watch or your mobile.

With each session lasting just half an hour, it slots neatly into hectic routines and suits those who aren’t particularly fond of lengthy workout sessions or aren’t fixated on hitting daily step targets.

Researchers at the university are currently investigating how interval walking might impact conditions including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They’ve suggested it “could help prevent the incidence of lifestyle-related diseases and exert therapeutic effects if it can reduce the dosage of prescription medications or eliminate their requirement”.

How does interval walking work?

According to Shinshu University, the method centres on alternating between brisk walking for three minutes — at a pace that leaves you slightly breathless, roughly 70% of your maximum aerobic capacity — followed by three minutes of gentle walking, repeating this pattern throughout.

For optimal results in boosting fitness levels, they suggest completing five sets of these intervals (totalling 30 minutes) at least four days weekly.

Their research indicates that maintaining this routine four times weekly over five months “can improve physical fitness by up to 20%.”

They also believe it could play a role in warding off “lifestyle-related illnesses.”

Who can benefit from interval walking?

Beyond helping those looking to boost their general fitness, research from Shinshu University discovered that this type of interval walking could prove especially valuable for individuals with “low bone mineral density”. Since bone density naturally decreases with age, this encompasses certain elderly individuals and women experiencing the menopause.

The research stated: “Osteoporosis [weakening bones] is particularly prevalent among postmenopausal women owing to the rapid decline in the secretion of female hormones resulting in a reduction in bone mineral density.

“A total of 234 postmenopausal women completed five sets of interval walking per day on at least 4 days per week for 5 months in this study.

“Measurement of the bone mineral density of the participants revealed an increase in the bone mineral density of individuals with low bone mineral density at baseline. No changes were observed in the bone density of individuals with high bone mineral density at baseline.”

Burn more, weigh less. Sounds simple, right? Not exactly.

A new study is challenging conventional wisdom about exercise and weight loss, suggesting your workout may not burn as many calories as you think.

The findings could help explain why so many people don’t see the scale budge, even when they’re regularly hitting the gym and watching what they eat.

It all comes down to math.

Over the course of a day, your body’s natural calorie burn without any formal exercise can range from about 1,300 to more than 2,000, depending on age, sex and other factors, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

For years, scientists assumed any extra calories you burned — like from running a mile or swimming laps — would simply add to that total and lead to weight loss.

But recently, some researchers have been questioning that “additive model,” suggesting the body may follow a “constrained” approach instead.

That theory says your body has a built-in energy cap. So when you burn more calories during exercise, your body makes up for it by saving calories elsewhere — like cutting back on cellular repairs and other internal tasks.

Intrigued, two Duke University researchers decided to put the models head-to-head.

They reviewed 14 exercise studies involving 450 people, along with several animal trials, and compared the calories subjects were expected to burn with the calories they actually burned.

On average, the researchers found that only 72% of the calories burned during exercise actually showed up in total daily burn — the other 28% was quietly offset elsewhere in the body.

From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense. Our ancestors had to trek for miles without exhausting their energy reserves, according to Herman Pontzer, lead author of the study and an evolutionary anthropologist.

He witnessed this firsthand in Tanzania, where he lived among the Hadza, one of the last hunter-gatherer communities on Earth. Every day they trek miles across the dry savannah, hunting game and foraging for food.

Pontzer expected them to burn far more calories than notoriously sedentary Americans, but he found they actually burned about the same amount.

Our flexible metabolism — which lets us adapt to different diets and store fat for hard times — helped humans survive and thrive, and even shaped the way we age, Pontzer explained in an interview with Duke’s Magnify Magazine.

Notably, however, this compensation effect wasn’t universal across all workouts.

The researchers found the body only seemed to compensate during aerobic exercise like running. When it came to lifting weights or resistance training, the three strength studies they reviewed showed people burned more calories than expected based on how much they exercised.

The team isn’t exactly sure why — but they have a few theories.

For one, it’s tough to measure calories burned while lifting. The methods used in the studies are likely better suited for steady cardio, so the numbers might be off.

It’s also possible that heavy lifting doesn’t trigger the same compensation response as long, sweaty aerobic sessions. And the act of repairing muscle damage after strength training may require extra energy as well.

Diet also seemed to play a key role in how the body compensates.

The researchers found that if people cut calories while ramping up their workouts, their total burn often didn’t budge at all.

“The real killer here is that if you pair exercise with diet, your body goes, ‘Fine, well, then I’m going to compensate more,’” Pontzer told the New Scientist. “It’s still good for you, just not for weight loss.”

But that doesn’t mean you should cancel your gym membership.

Regular movement is still essential for our health — lowering chronic inflammation, stabilizing hormones and reducing the risk of chronic illnesses.

“You have to think about diet and exercise as two different tools for two different jobs,” Pontzer said.

“Diet is the tool for managing your weight. Exercise is the tool for everything else related to health — from mental health to cardiometabolic disease.”

A new collaboration between Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) and Pure Fitness promises to combine “grace and strength” in a series of community workshops to demystify the classical dance form while promoting wellness culture and the science of modern fitness in Hong Kong.

“Most people might only think about the performance or artistic elements of ballet, so they might not realise that underneath all of it is about getting our bodies ready,” says Irene Lo, an associate director of training with the ballet company.

“We do a lot of work on alignments and posture and muscle training, and those are things that could help anyone, even as an office worker.

“[It is about] bringing a little bit more ballet from that very faraway stage into daily life.”

The partnership signifies a growing trend of interdisciplinary wellness that positions Hong Kong at the forefront of a global movement where artistic and athletic disciplines converge.