Health experts recommend adults focus on brisk walking

Family walking

Public Health England (PHE) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) are encouraging adults to incorporate brisk walking into their days as a way to improve their general health and wellbeing.

As part of the push to get adults doing more moderate intensity physical activity each day, health experts are encouraging people to increase the intensity of their walking, rather than just focus on the distance or number of steps.

Moderate intensity physical activity means getting the heart rate up and breathing faster. Just 10 minutes of brisk walking a day is an easy way for adults to introduce more moderate intensity physical activity into their day and reduce their risk of early death by up to 15%.

Taking a 10-minute brisk walk each day can help build up towards the UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) recommendation of at least 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. This has been linked to health benefits including a lowered risk of type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

A new survey by PHE looking at adults perceptions of physical activity in the North West found that:

• Many adults struggle to fit in exercise. Not having enough time (30%) was the main reason cited, followed by not feeling motivated (25%) and being too tired (27%).
• Over half of adults (54%) think more than 240 minutes of exercise per week is required to see general health benefits – nearly double the recommended guidance of at least 150 minutes – and one in seven (14%) think that more than 420 minutes per week is required (an hour per day).
• Nearly nine in 10 (87%) say they walk more than 10 minutes per day, however this drops to just over half (52%) who say they walk briskly for this amount of time.

The current physical inactivity crisis also has a societal impact. In adults, physical inactivity contributes to one in six deaths in the UK and costs the NHS over £0.5 billion per year.

Dr Juliet McGrattan, PHE North West Physical Activity Champion, said: “Walking at a brisk pace for 10-minutes or more – rather than aiming for a number of steps throughout the day – has undeniable additional health benefits.

“Regardless of your age and activity level, I would advise everyone to find ways of including a 10-minute brisk walk during their day as it’s a simple and effective way of being more active. If you’re taking medication for a long-term health condition, you will notice even more benefits from walking briskly for 10-minutes.”