Upgrade Your Daily Steps Into a Powerful Health Tool

Walking is one of the most accessible forms of exercise available, yet most people are leaving significant health benefits on the table by not thinking strategically about how they do it. If you are a time-pressed professional, a few simple upgrades to your daily walk could transform it into one of the most effective tools in your health routine.

Add pace

The single most impactful change you can make is to walk briskly. A large prospective cohort study using UK Biobank data found that brisk walking was associated with a substantially lower risk of cardiac arrhythmias compared to slow walking, with the protective effect partly mediated through improvements in metabolic and inflammatory markers (Qin et al., 2025). Separately, a cross-sectional study of over 5,000 adults found that brisk walkers had significantly lower blood glucose, HbA1c, and systolic blood pressure compared to those who walked slowly (Cigarroa et al., 2023). A good rule of thumb: you should be able to hold a conversation, but not sing.

Introduce intervals

Rather than walking at a steady pace throughout, try alternating between two to three minutes of brisk walking and one minute of slower recovery. This approach borrows from the principles of interval training, which research suggests can improve cardiovascular fitness and support cardio-metabolic health markers, including blood pressure.

Even within a walking session, varying your pace increases the overall physiological demand of the activity and can raise energy expenditure without requiring additional time. It can also make walks feel more engaging, helping to maintain consistency over the long term.

Add incline

Seeking out hills, stairs, or increasing the treadmill gradient is one of the most effective ways to increase the challenge of a walk. Walking uphill places greater demands on the glutes, hamstrings and calves, helping to build lower-body strength while elevating heart rate.

The downhill phase introduces eccentric muscle work, where muscles lengthen while under tension. Research suggests eccentric exercise can improve muscle strength and functional capacity, making varied terrain a valuable addition to a walking routine (Ansari et al., 2023).

Use walking to protect your future self

Beyond the immediate benefits, walking consistently is a long-term investment in your health. Data from the UK Biobank found that a slower self-reported walking pace was associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, independent of adiposity levels (Boonpor et al., 2023).

Similarly, findings from the Chilean National Health Survey showed that adults who reported a brisk walking pace tended to have more favourable cardiometabolic health profiles than slower walkers, including markers associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk (Cigarroa et al., 2023).

While walking pace alone does not determine health outcomes, walking briskly and consistently is a simple, accessible habit that is strongly associated with better metabolic health and a lower risk of several chronic diseases. Small increases in intensity, variety and consistency today can contribute to healthier ageing in the years ahead.

References:

Ansari, M., Hardcastle, S., Myers, S., & Williams, A. D. (2023). The health and functional benefits of eccentric versus concentric exercise training: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 22(2), 288-309. 

Boonpor, J., Parra-Soto, S., Gore, J., Talebi, A., Lynskey, N., Raisi, A., Welsh, P., Sattar, N., Pell, J. P., Gill, J. M. R., Gray, S. R., Ho, F. K., & Celis-Morales, C. A. (2023). Association between walking pace and incident type 2 diabetes by adiposity level: A prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 25(7), 1900-1910. 

Cigarroa, I., Bravo-Leal, M., Petermann-Rocha, F., Parra-Soto, S., Concha-Cisternas, Y., Matus-Castillo, C., Vásquez-Gómez, J., Zapata-Lamana, R., Parra-Rizo, M. A., Álvarez, C., & Celis-Morales, C. (2023). Brisk walking pace is associated with better cardiometabolic health in adults: Findings from the Chilean National Health Survey 2016-2017. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(8). 

Qin, P., Ho, F. K., Celis-Morales, C. A., Trost, S. G., & Pell, J. P. (2025). Association of self-reported and accelerometer-based walking pace with incident cardiac arrhythmias: A prospective cohort study using UK Biobank. Heart, 111(16), 763-768.