![\"people](\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/continuous-walking-featured.png\")
<\/p>\nHow long your walks are\u2014not step count\u2014may influence your long-term health, according to a new study<\/p>\n
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(Photo: Ayana Underwood\/Canva)<\/p>\n
Updated October 30, 2025 12:42PM<\/p>\n
Tired of your smartwatch reminding you that you haven\u2019t hit 10,000 steps today? It\u2019s time to dismiss the notification. Walking any distance is beneficial for health, even if you don\u2019t reach this popular (but actually, pretty arbitrary<\/a>) threshold.<\/p>\n However, studies haven\u2019t looked into whether taking walks in shorter or longer bursts impacts heart health\u2014until now.<\/p>\n A new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine<\/a> confirms that it\u2019s not just the steps that count: the length of your daily walks matters, too\u2014and hitting 15 minutes at a time may come with significant cardiovascular and longevity benefits.<\/p>\n The Longer the Walk, the Better the Health Outcomes<\/p>\n This study used the popular health database, the UK Biobank, to draw parallels between walking behavior and risk of death and cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n An international research team analyzed data from 33,560 adults. Participants averaged 62 years old at the start of the study, and took fewer than 8,000 steps a day. Beginning in 2013, they were instructed to wear a walking sensor for seven days. About a decade later, they underwent follow-up testing so researchers could assess their health.<\/p>\n Researchers used this data to split the participants into four groups based on the typical duration of their walks taken during the day:<\/p>\n Group 1: walked in spurts shorter than 5 minutes They found that the longer participants walked at a time (at least during the days when they wore a monitor), the less likely they were to have died or developed cardiovascular disease by their follow-up.<\/p>\n Better Heart Health<\/p>\n Those who walked for less than five minutes at a time had a 13.03 percent chance of having been diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease at follow-up. Those who walked for 15 minutes or longer had just a 4.39 percent\u00a0chance.<\/p>\n Extended Longevity<\/p>\n Those who walked for less than five minutes at a time had a 4.36 percent mortality rate (excluding accidents, falls, and other causes of death that were not related to physical activity) at follow-up.<\/p>\n Those who walked for 15 minutes or longer had a 0.80 percent death rate. Those who walked for 10 to 15 minutes at a time had a similarly low rate of 0.84 percent.<\/p>\n These results remained consistent even after researchers adjusted for certain health variables, leading them to conclude that incorporating longer walks into your day, each lasting at least 10 to 15 minutes, may have significant benefits in the long run.<\/p>\n Tips for Walking Longer<\/p>\n \u201cThe key takeaway from this study is clear: the longer we walk at one time, the better,\u201d says Dr. David Sabgir, a cardiologist.<\/p>\n Sabgir, who was not involved in this study, notes that these findings do have some limitations and could be strengthened with future research: \u201cIt would be beneficial to conduct randomized controlled trials\u2014which would minimize bias as this study was observational \u2014include more diverse populations, examine the intensity (pace) of walking, and investigate different age groups,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In addition to your existing strength or endurance workouts, try aiming for one or two longer walks a day to put these findings into motion. Through his personal practice, Sabgir has seen that people tend to walk longer when they\u2019re walking with friends or family, listening to an audiobook or podcast, intentionally choosing a longer route, or walking outside in nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re feeling extra energized, try upping the intensity of your bursts for a walk you can feel great about\u2014regardless of step count.<\/p>\n Want more\u00a0Outside\u00a0health stories?\u00a0Sign up for the Bodywork newsletter<\/a>. Ready to push yourself? Enter MapMyRun\u2019s\u00a0You vs. the Year 2025<\/a> running challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How long your walks are\u2014not step count\u2014may influence your long-term health, according to a new study (Photo: Ayana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[565,134,111,139,69,51741,69764,69765,51746,2359],"class_list":{"0":"post-110020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-parent_category-health","14":"tag-tag-research-study","15":"tag-tag-science","16":"tag-tag-walking","17":"tag-type-article"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGroup 2: walked in spurts lasting between 5 and 10 minutes
\nGroup 3: walked in spurts lasting between 10 and 15 minutes
\nGroup 4: walked for periods of 15 minutes or longer<\/p>\n