The speed at which you walk may provide insights into your overall health and longevity, according to a recent study involving over 4,000 older adults.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open has revealed that a person’s walking speed could serve as a significant indicator of their health and longevity. The research followed 4,067 adults in the U.K., with an average age of 69, to investigate the relationship between their usual walking pace and their risk of death over nearly 12 years of follow-up.
Participants in the study completed a short walking test at their normal pace and wore wrist activity trackers for nine days to monitor their walking speed in everyday life. The results indicated that faster walking speeds in both settings were associated with a lower risk of death, even after accounting for various health and lifestyle factors. During the study period, 739 participants passed away.
Beth Templin, a board-certified geriatric clinical specialist and CEO of HouseFit Physical Therapy & Fitness in St. Louis, emphasized the importance of walking speed as a health indicator. “In physical therapy, we call walking speed the ‘sixth vital sign’ because it’s a snapshot of how well many body systems are working together,” Templin, who was not involved in the study, explained.
According to Templin, changes in walking speed can provide valuable insights into a person’s health. “To walk briskly, you need strong legs, a healthy heart and lungs, good balance, and a brain and nervous system that can coordinate it all,” she said. “When walking speed starts to slip, it’s often an early warning sign that one of those systems is declining, sometimes before anything shows up on a lab test.”
For older adults looking to improve their walking speed and overall fitness, simply increasing the number of steps taken may not suffice. Templin advises a more comprehensive approach to fitness. “Build the engine, not just the habit,” she suggested. “Most people try to walk more, but speed comes from strength and balance.”
To enhance walking speed, Templin recommends strengthening the legs through simple exercises, such as standing up from a chair without using hands and performing heel raises while holding onto a counter. Additionally, she suggests incorporating short bursts of faster walking into a routine. After a warm-up, individuals could walk briskly for one minute, slow down for two minutes, and then repeat this cycle, gradually increasing the duration of the faster intervals.
However, experts caution that the findings do not imply that merely walking faster will extend one’s lifespan. “This study shows an association, not proof that walking faster by itself adds years,” Templin reiterated. The participants in the study were generally healthier than the broader population, and researchers noted that there is no standardized method for measuring everyday walking pace with wrist activity trackers.
Further research is necessary to determine whether these findings are applicable to other demographic groups. As the study highlights the potential link between walking speed and longevity, it opens the door for future investigations into how mobility may reflect overall health.
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