Brisk 22-minute walk could offset harmful effects of sitting, study suggests
I will share one story from my life.<p>Last year I decided to lose weight (I lost 35kg &#x2F; 70 pounds in 9 months). During that time, I also decided to start running. This year, once my weight stabilised, I started getting huge improvements in running performance (probably from not being on huge calorie deficit anymore). Little did I know, I completely outpaced my body&#x27;s ability to strengthen tendons and got pretty serious injury in my foot.<p>I could not run for almost 2 months. Once I could walk (but not yet run) I started doing A LOT of walking. I got up to 2-3.5h of brisk walk (about 27k steps &#x2F; 22km) every day and stayed there for a month.<p>When I started running again, I have noticed not only I did not lose any of my improvements, I actually was way ahead of where I would be if I kept running. It was as if my running performance kept steadily improving at a fast pace even with me doing no running.<p>I now use walking as part of my regular training and I regularly trade some walking volume into running or back, depending on situation. I had enormous running performance improvement (as measured by my ability to run fast and long at a specific low heart rate) and I attribute it to a large degree to high volume of walks (averaged 29k steps for the past 6 months, this includes running).<p>**<p>As to the topic of the submission, it is no wonder that walking offsets bad effects of sitting. For example, bad effects of sitting on our health include things like increased insulin resistance (this happens when you spend a long time not moving after a meal). When you go for a walk after a meal your muscles start consuming way more energy than when you are at your basal metabolic rate, not moving. This additional requirement for energy helps remove sugar from your bloodstream. This for your body is as if it was more sensitive to insulin -- it needs less insulin for a shorter time to achieve the same effect. And in fact muscle working <i>IS</i> more sensitive to insulin as it opens itself up to receive much needed energy sources.<p>Also training at low intensity (brisk walk for most people) is what athletes use to improve their mitochondria to improve their aerobic capacity. VO2.max has been found to correlate with longevity much more than even diabetes, smoking or even some cancers. It seems if you want to live long and healthy life you should strive to improve your mitochondrial health, aerobic capacity and low intensity aerobic activity that involves large parts of your body that you can do consistently every day, like walking, is the best way to achieve it.<p>I am now helping couple obese people help lose their weight. I asked them, rather than start running to just spend as much time as they can walking at a brisk pace. It carries much less injury risk. It is much easier to do consistently. It has much less overhead (you just walk out the door, no need to drive to gym). It is much more enjoyable and thus easier to stick to. It does not leave people in pain afterwards. And it has some additional utility -- you can walk places.