Why has 'Japanese walking' become an online health trend?
A fitness trend known as Japanese walking is capturing attention online, promising major health benefits with minimal equipment and time. Based on interval-style bursts of fast and slow walking, Japanese walking was developed by Prof Hiroshi Nose and Associate Prof Shizue Masuki at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan.
It involves alternating between three minutes of walking at a higher intensity and three minutes at a lower intensity, repeated for at least 30 minutes, four times per week. The higher-intensity walking should be done at a level that is "somewhat hard". At this level, it is still possible to talk, but holding a full conversation would be more difficult. The lower-intensity walking should be done at a level that is "light". At this level, talking should be comfortable, though a little more laboured than an effortless conversation.
Japanese walking has been likened to high-intensity interval training or Hiit, and has been referred to as "high-intensity walking", although it is less taxing than true Hiit and is performed at lower intensities.
It is also easy to perform and requires only a stopwatch and space for walking. It requires little planning and is less time-consuming than other walking targets, such as achieving 10,000 steps a day. This makes it suitable for most people.
What does the evidence show?
Japanese walking offers significant health benefits. A 2007 study from Japan compared this method to lower-intensity continuous walking, with a goal of achieving 8,000 steps per day. Participants who followed the Japanese walking approach experienced notable reductions in body weight. Blood pressure also dropped – more so than in those following the lower-intensity continuous walking routine.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Oliver Callan Show, the best walking trails in Ireland you may not know about
Leg strength and physical fitness were also measured in this study. Both improved to a greater extent in those following the Japanese walking programme, compared to those completing moderate-intensity continuous walking. A longer-term study also found that Japanese walking protects against the reductions in strength and fitness that happen with ageing. These improvements in health would also suggest that Japanese walking can help people live longer, though this has not yet been directly studied.
There are a few things to consider with this new walking trend. In the 2007 study, around 22% of people did not complete the Japanese walking programme. For the lower intensity programme, with a target of 8,000 steps per day, around 17% did not complete it. This means that Japanese walking may not be suitable for everyone, and it might not be any easier or more attractive than simple step-based targets.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, do we really need 10,000 steps a day?
Achieving a certain number of steps per day has also been shown to help people live longer. For those aged 60 and older, the target should be around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day and 8,000 to 10,000 for those aged under 60. Similar evidence does not appear to exist for Japanese walking... yet.
So is this walking trend really the be-all and end-all? Or does it matter less about what exercise you do and more about how often and how hard you do it? The answer is likely to be the latter. Research tells us that people who regularly perform more bouts of moderate to vigorous physical activity live longer, regardless of how long each bout is.
This means that we should focus on ensuring we perform regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and make it habitual. If that activity happens to be Japanese walking, then it's a worthwhile choice.
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Irish Times
12 hours ago
- Irish Times
Japanese walking: How to try this viral fitness trend
If the thought of pumping iron or holding a plank doesn't put a spring in your step, maybe the latest exercise trend to dominate social media will: Japanese interval walking. The idea is simple: alternate between three minutes of fast and three minutes of slow walking, ideally for 30 minutes at a time. 'The fast walking pace is typically fast [enough] that you are not able to speak in long sentences,' said Dr Kristian Karstoft, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, who has studied the method. 'And then the slow intervals are so slow that you are able to recover.' He added that people could often find it challenging to walk slowly enough during these intervals. Putting the approach to the test, I hit the area around King's Cross in central London. READ MORE I began striding out, as though late for a train. Three minutes later my watch beeped and I slowed down, pottering along as if searching for a dropped earring. Another beep and I sped up once more, arms swinging. I was slightly worried what passersby might think of my erratic pace – I suspect I looked as if I needed the loo but dared not risk a jog. Already I was regretting attempting this without my two flat-coated retrievers: if they were in tow I could at least have blamed my dawdling intervals on their lamp-post sniffing. After 30 minutes I felt warm, but not exactly out of puff. Karstoft said the approach was particularly suited to people prone to running injuries, as walking is less hard on the joints, or middle-aged or older adults who do not do much regular training. People who were already pretty fit , he said, would need to jog or run for intervals to experience similar benefits. The regime is similar to high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Dr Shaun Phillips, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise physiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'High-intensity exercise can give similar benefits to moderate-intensity exercise but in a shorter time frame [or] with a lower volume of exercise. The use of high-intensity places a bigger stimulus on the body to adapt.' Typically with interval walking, we've seen a gain in fitness level of around 15 per cent to 20 per cent — Dr Kristian Karstoft But not everyone can keep up a furious pace, even when walking. Phillips said people who were less active or fit should start with normal walking to get into the swing of it, and then try interval walking. 'A way to maximise your ability to do high-intensity training is to do it with the alternating intensities, meaning the interval-based training,' Karstoft said. While high-intensity interval walking has recently become popular on TikTok , where enthusiasts share videos of themselves earnestly striding around town parks, the idea goes back more than 20 years when scientists in Japan began studying it in middle-aged and older adults. According to one Japanese study, involving an analysis of data from 139 healthy participants with an average age of 63, people who did high-intensity interval walking on four or more days a week over a five-month period increased their peak aerobic capacity, indicating an improvement in physical fitness. What's more, these improvements were greater than those of participants who had undertaken a walking regime of continuous, moderate intensity or who did no walking training. The study also suggested high-intensity interval walking may reduce blood pressure and increase the strength of the knee joint. [ Five of the best family friendly hiking trails around Ireland: From easy to demanding Opens in new window ] A small randomised control trial by Karstoft and his colleagues found the approach could also benefit people with type 2 diabetes , including by improving their glycaemic control. Four months of high-intensity interval walking was associated with greater benefits than continuous walking, even though the overall energy expenditure and mean training intensity were the same. [ How many steps a day do you really need for improve your health? It's not 10,000 Opens in new window ] 'Typically with interval walking, we've seen a gain in fitness level of around 15 per cent to 20 per cent compared to trivial or no improvements in fitness levels when subjects are doing the continuous walking [or no walking],' Karstoft said. 'We've seen improvements in body composition with an average weight loss during four to six months of training of around three to five kilograms, mainly due to fat mass.' A review on the topic published by Karstoft and his colleagues last year concluded that Japanese interval walking was a feasible and effective training regimen for older, fragile people. 'It significantly enhances fitness, muscle strength, and health markers,' they wrote. But, Phillips acknowledged, while some people like the challenge of higher intensity periods of exercise, others hate it. 'We're certainly never going to come to the ideal exercise protocol that everybody loves,' he said. 'It's about trying to give as many workable and beneficial options as possible that people can pick from.' - The Guardian
RTÉ News
5 days ago
- RTÉ News
Why has 'Japanese walking' become an online health trend?
Analysis: Based on interval-style bursts of fast and slow walking, Japanese walking promises major health benefits with minimal equipment and time A fitness trend known as Japanese walking is capturing attention online, promising major health benefits with minimal equipment and time. Based on interval-style bursts of fast and slow walking, Japanese walking was developed by Prof Hiroshi Nose and Associate Prof Shizue Masuki at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan. It involves alternating between three minutes of walking at a higher intensity and three minutes at a lower intensity, repeated for at least 30 minutes, four times per week. The higher-intensity walking should be done at a level that is "somewhat hard". At this level, it is still possible to talk, but holding a full conversation would be more difficult. The lower-intensity walking should be done at a level that is "light". At this level, talking should be comfortable, though a little more laboured than an effortless conversation. Japanese walking has been likened to high-intensity interval training or Hiit, and has been referred to as "high-intensity walking", although it is less taxing than true Hiit and is performed at lower intensities. It is also easy to perform and requires only a stopwatch and space for walking. It requires little planning and is less time-consuming than other walking targets, such as achieving 10,000 steps a day. This makes it suitable for most people. What does the evidence show? Japanese walking offers significant health benefits. A 2007 study from Japan compared this method to lower-intensity continuous walking, with a goal of achieving 8,000 steps per day. Participants who followed the Japanese walking approach experienced notable reductions in body weight. Blood pressure also dropped – more so than in those following the lower-intensity continuous walking routine. From RTÉ Radio 1's Oliver Callan Show, the best walking trails in Ireland you may not know about Leg strength and physical fitness were also measured in this study. Both improved to a greater extent in those following the Japanese walking programme, compared to those completing moderate-intensity continuous walking. A longer-term study also found that Japanese walking protects against the reductions in strength and fitness that happen with ageing. These improvements in health would also suggest that Japanese walking can help people live longer, though this has not yet been directly studied. There are a few things to consider with this new walking trend. In the 2007 study, around 22% of people did not complete the Japanese walking programme. For the lower intensity programme, with a target of 8,000 steps per day, around 17% did not complete it. This means that Japanese walking may not be suitable for everyone, and it might not be any easier or more attractive than simple step-based targets. From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, do we really need 10,000 steps a day? Achieving a certain number of steps per day has also been shown to help people live longer. For those aged 60 and older, the target should be around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day and 8,000 to 10,000 for those aged under 60. Similar evidence does not appear to exist for Japanese walking... yet. So is this walking trend really the be-all and end-all? Or does it matter less about what exercise you do and more about how often and how hard you do it? The answer is likely to be the latter. Research tells us that people who regularly perform more bouts of moderate to vigorous physical activity live longer, regardless of how long each bout is. This means that we should focus on ensuring we perform regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and make it habitual. If that activity happens to be Japanese walking, then it's a worthwhile choice.
RTÉ News
08-08-2025
- RTÉ News
What a greasy takeaway does to your brain
Analysis: Researchers gave people a milkshake with 1,362 calories and 130g of fat. Here's what happened next A greasy takeaway may seem like an innocent Friday night indulgence. But our recent research suggests even a single high-fat meal could impair blood flow to the brain, potentially increasing the risk of stroke and dementia. Dietary fat is an important part of our diet. It provides us with a concentrated source of energy, transports vitamins and when stored in the body, protects our organs and helps keep us warm. The two main types of fat that we consume are saturated and unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), which are differentiated by their chemical composition. But these fats have different effects on our body. For example, it is well established that eating a meal that is high in saturated fat, such as that takeaway pizza, can be bad for our blood vessels and heart health. And these effects are not simply confined to the heart. 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It is well established that eating a meal high in saturated fat, such as a takeaway pizza, can be bad for our blood vessels and heart health What role might diet play? After eating a meal high in saturated fat, levels of fat in the blood rise and peak after around four hours. At the same time, blood vessels become stiffer and lose their ability to relax and expand. This restricts blood flow around the body. But little is known about what happens to the brain during this time and how well its blood supply is protected. To address this for the first time, we recruited 20 young men between the ages of 18 and 35, and 21 men between 60 and 80. We measured how well blood vessels linked to heart and brain health worked before, and four hours following, consumption of a meal high in saturated fat. We assessed how well a blood vessel in the arm could open up in response to increased blood flow to obtain an indication of heart health. This is a method known as "flow-mediated dilatation". 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The drink contained 1,362 calories and 130g of fat, mimicking the fat load of a fast-food takeaway. Although we didn't directly test for the long-term effects of a high-fat meal on mental functioning in this study, we have previously shown that such a meal increases free radicals (unstable, cell-damaging molecules) and decreases nitric oxide (molecules that help blood vessels relax and open up to transport oxygen and glucose around the body). This may explain the reduced blood flow regulation we observed in our recent study. This has important clinical implications. While an occasional takeaway is unlikely to cause harm on its own, our results suggest that even one fatty meal has an immediate effect on the body. Our study highlights the importance of consuming a diet that is low in saturated fat to protect not only our heart health, but also our brain health. This is particularly important for older adults whose brains appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of such a meal and are already at increased risk of stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. Public health guidance recommends that men consume no more than 30g of saturated fat a day, while women should consume no more than 20g. Yet many of us routinely exceed that, particularly during weekend takeaways, pub lunches or fast-food splurges. What's more, we may spend much of our waking lives in a post-meal state. This period, known as "post-prandial lipaemia", is when fat levels are elevated, and when the body, it seems, may be most at risk. Food for thought There's still so much more we need to learn about this topic. Public health guidance recommends swapping saturated fats for polyunsaturated ones. These are found in foods like oily fish, walnuts and seeds, which are associated with better heart and brain health over the long term. But we don't yet know how the brain responds to a single meal that is high in polyunsaturated fat. Nor do we know how the female brain responds to a high-fat meal. This is a crucial gap in our knowledge since women face a greater risk of stroke and dementia in later life compared to men. Our study offers a timely reminder that diet doesn't just shape our long-term health. It also affects our body and brain in real time. And as we're learning, when it comes to protecting brain health, every meal may count.
