Keep walking the mantra for good health

Old people, who go for high-intensity walking, can keep their blood pressure in check, maintain thigh muscle strength and increase their exercise capacity. The rapid growth in the elderly population in many countries has underlined the importance of exercise training to decrease the likelihood of disability and age-associated disease, promote independence, and enhance quality of life. Moderately paced walking (about 6 kilometre per hour) is thought to protect against disability and is recommended for middle-aged and older people. However, such walking may not be intense enough to improve aerobic exercise capacity. Researchers from Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan, randomly divided 60 older men and 186 older women into three groups: no walking training, moderate-intensity walking training and high-intensity walking training. The groups were observed for five months. Participants in the moderate-intensity continuous walking training group were instructed to walk at approximately 50% of their peak aerobic capacity for walking, using a pedometer to verify that they took 8000 steps or more per day for 4 or more days per week. Those in the high-intensity interval walking training group, who were monitored by accelerometry, were instructed to repeat 5 or more sets of 3-minute low-intensity walking at 40% of peak aerobic capacity for walking followed by a 3-minute high-intensity walking above 70% of peak aerobic capacity for walking per day for 4 or more days per week. Isometric knee extension and flexion forces, peak aerobic capacity for cycling, and peak aerobic capacity for walking were all measured both before and after training. The targets were met by 9 of 25 men and 37 of 59 women in the no walking training group, by 8 of 16 men and 43 of 59 women in the moderate-intensity continuous walking training group, and by 11 of 19 men and 31 of 68 women in the high-intensity interval walking training group. The findings revealed that patients who were engaged in high-intensity walking showed greater improvements in blood pressure, thigh muscle strength, and exercise capacity than did patients in the other groups. Thus, adoption of an active lifestyle is an important step to keeping healthy. The longer a person is active, the better, regardless of what form the activity takes.