Pick up the pace
Walk 10,000 steps. Walk for 30 minutes three times a week. Walk 60 minutes most days of the week. Walk farther and walk longer. These are typical exercise prescriptions. But there is another component of your daily walk that is also important. It is how fast you walk.
A Canadian study, published in this month’s Diabetes Care, examined the health benefits of slow versus fast walking in a small group of obese people (mean BMI = 31.5) with type 2 diabetes. The researchers, Steven Johnson, MSC, and his colleagues, had previously determined that individuals with type 2 diabetes naturally walk at a slower speed than is necessary to derive health benefits. But could they be trained to pick up the pace? Eleven individuals who were already walking 10,000 steps per day participated in a simple program, aptly named Pick up the Pace or PUP for short. Only eight people completed the entire 12 week program, three dropped out because of illness or work commitments.
At the start of the study, their cardiorespiratory fitness was measured using a standardized treadmill test. They were then taught how to use a pedometer and a stop watch to increase their walking intensity. This was done by determining the number of steps in their normal (slower) pace and then increasing it by 10%. If their usual pace was 90 steps per minute, they were taught how to increase it to 100 steps per minute. Participants practiced this faster pace in a series of weekly meetings and also attended a number of supervised meetings in which they walked at their “PUP” pace. They wore heart rate monitors and carried stopwatches to monitor how long they were PUP walking.
The speed of the PUP walking was significantly faster than the non-PUP walking (5 km/hour vs 3 km/hour). Average heart rate increased somewhat, from 74% to almost 77% of age-predicted heart rate maximum, over the course of the study. Participants consistently rated their perceived exertion during PUP walking as "hard." Repeat treadmill testing after completion of the 12 week study showed heart rate response to exercise improved significantly over the course of the study, suggesting their cardiorespiratory fitness had improved. Hemoglobin A1 c levels improved by a mean of a third of a point, but this was not statistically significant.
What’s the bottom line? A leisurely stroll does not convey the same health benefits as faster, more intense walking. If you are walking for your health, it is time to pick up the pace.