We know walking is vital for good health, and research shows that both the amount of steps you take daily and the intensity of walks is essential to getting the full heart-health benefits.
But a study published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that concentrating your steps in one long walk may offer greater benefits than spreading them across shorter ones.
Using UK Biobank data, the research team behind the study examined the daily behaviors of more than 30,000 adults in the UK. The average age of participants was 62.
Participants were placed into four groups based on how long they walked consistently, each time that they walked: in intervals of less than five minutes, five to a little under 10 minutes, 10 to nearly 15 minutes and 15 minutes or longer.
More than 40% of the participants landed in the group that walked in bouts of five minutes or less, the study found. But the study also showed that walking in intervals of 15 minutes or longer was associated with a lower risk of heart disease and mortality.
