As an agebuzz reader, you know our steady drumbeat about the health benefits of walking. As an easy-to-initiate activity, walking, whether slow and steady or faster with purpose, can help sharpen your brain, trim your waste, and work all the muscles necessary to keep you upright and balanced. Merely by walking as your “workout,” you can easily accomplish the level of weekly physical activity recommended by The World Health Organization. Interestingly, new research continues to support the value of walking for all sorts of health benefits and over all kinds of terrain. So grab a water bottle and let’s dive into the latest research findings.

Hot off the presses from the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023 comes word that just a little extra walking each day can significantly lower your risk for a cardiovascular event.  According to this new study, even just an extra 500 steps a day (about ¼ of a mile) can reduce the risk of a stroke or heart failure by 14% in adults aged 70 and above. And while even more walking can lower your risk further, it’s important to set attainable goals and build in small increases over time, rather than overreach and become overwhelmed or disinterested in improving your odds. If you’re motivated to move beyond an additional 500 daily steps, the research indicates that the risk of a cardiovascular event can drop much further. In this study, 12% of participants who walked less than 2000 steps a day had a cardiac event while only 3.5% of those who walked 4500 steps a day had such an occurrence. The researchers found that the heart health benefits of walking begin to kick in at around 3000 steps (roughly 1.5 miles) a day, so if you’re walking fewer than that, your goal would be to slowly but steadily increase your steps. As one expert states, “A good rule of thumb is don’t increase [one’s walking] by more than 10% a week. Too-large increases can lead to musculoskeletal injuries.” One other takeaway from this study? As one commentator noted, “What gets measured gets managed,” so it may be time to be tracking your steps if you’re not already doing that. Whether it’s a health app on your phone or a tracker on your wrist or waist, making sure you get even small additional increments of walking in each day could be a big boost for your heart.

Ideas for adding more walking steps each day? Getting a walking companion (human or dog), creating a step “competition” to motivate you to move more, or walking and talking (with a friend or on your phone) are many examples of moves to squeeze in more daily steps. You may also want to add in another purposeful walk into your daily routine. It can be a morning walk to boost your mood and energy for the day, or an after-dinner evening stroll, which may help you sleep better. Or maybe you want to truly switch things up a bit, and take up the new trend of “speed hiking.” Coming in somewhere between a walk and a run, the idea is to get you out in nature (which new research has found beneficial to the health and quality of life of older adults), introduce a bit of an incline or softer terrain underfoot and ramp up the intensity of your walking, all of which can help improve your heart health and strengthen your leg muscles. To find an outdoor trail near your home, pack your compass and click here.