Japanese walking is a relatively short, accessible workout that doesn’t require a gym membership or special equipment. All you have to do is walk out the door.
“What I like about Japanese walking is that anyone can do it,” said Dr. Irvin Sulapas, a sports medicine physician and associate professor at UTHealth Houston. “You don’t need to do super high-intensity workouts, where you’re sore and tired, to gain improvements to your health.”
Japanese researchers developed this exercise regimen — hence the moniker Japanese walking — more than 20 years ago. The goal was to increase physical fitness among middle-aged and older adults, plus help this group prevent lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
High-intensity interval walking may protect older people from higher blood pressure, the researchers found. The activity may also help combat decreased thigh muscle strength and diminished peak aerobic capacity, according to the July 2007 study.
This same research team found in a related 2009 review that five months of interval walking training increased participants’ physical fitness and improved their indices of lifestyle-related diseases by an average of 10% to 20%.
More recently, older adults who practiced Japanese walking for five months showed improvements in resting blood pressure, lower-limb muscle strength and VO2 max, a key indicator of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance, according to a 2025 study by a different group of scientists. This latest research may have sparked Japanese walking’s current popularity.
High-intensity interval walking — and other forms of exercise — are definitely good for your heart health and well-being, said Dr. Sergiu Darabant, a medical cardiologist at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida.
“But Japanese walking is intriguing to many because it offers an entry to exercise from a sedentary lifestyle,” Darabant said. “It’s not intimidating.”
good
You must be logged in to post a comment.