Japanese walking: the interval walking method, explained

The short answer

Japanese walking is interval walking: three minutes of fast walking, then three minutes of slow walking, repeated at least five times. That is 30 minutes in all. It comes from researchers at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan, who tested it against ordinary steady walking in a five-month study published in 2007, and it went viral as “Japanese walking” almost two decades later.

Where it comes from

The method is properly called interval walking training. In the original study (Nemoto and colleagues, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2007), 246 adults with an average age of 63 were split into three groups for five months:

• No walking training.
• Steady walking: about half of each person’s peak walking capacity, checked with a pedometer at 8,000 steps a day or more, on at least four days a week.
• Interval walking: at least five sets of three minutes slow, at 40% of peak walking capacity, and three minutes fast, above 70%, on at least four days a week, tracked with an accelerometer.

“Peak walking capacity” was measured for each person in the lab, which is how the researchers knew exactly what fast and slow meant for every participant.

What the study found

The interval group improved more than the steady walkers on every fitness measure. Knee extension strength rose by 13% and knee flexion by 17%. Peak aerobic capacity rose by 8% measured on a bike and 9% measured walking. All of those gains were significantly larger than in the steady walking group, and the drop in resting systolic blood pressure was larger too. The authors concluded that interval walking may protect against the age-related rise in blood pressure and loss of thigh strength and aerobic capacity.

Two honest notes. Not everyone kept up with it: in the interval group, 11 of 19 men and 31 of 68 women met the training targets. And it was one study in middle-aged and older adults in Japan, so it says less about other groups.

How to try it

1. Warm up with a few minutes of easy walking.
2. Walk fast for three minutes. The study’s fast minutes were above 70% of each person’s measured capacity, which is hard work. Without a lab, the CDC’s talk test is a rough guide: near the point where you can say only a few words without pausing for breath.
3. Walk slowly for three minutes, easy enough to recover. Talking should be comfortable again.
4. Repeat until you have done five fast and five slow, 30 minutes in all.
5. Do it on at least four days a week, which is what the study asked of its walkers.

A timer on your phone or watch that buzzes every three minutes makes it easy to follow without looking.

Does it count toward your steps?

Yes, all of it. Your phone counts the fast and the slow minutes the same way, and the fast minutes pack in more steps. Thirty minutes of intervals will usually show more steps than 30 minutes of steady strolling.

Intervals, counted toward somewhere

In reTrek every step of your intervals moves you along a real route, from Lukla toward Everest Base Camp or along the Camino de Santiago, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. Fast minutes, slow minutes, the map does not mind. Everest Base Camp is free. Try your first intervals on it.