How increasing your steps and walking more can help you to live longer

But the real appeal, says Prof Mick Molloy, Dean of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, is that it is accessible to all.

“Walking is something that most people can fit into their day, and adding even short bouts of walking when you can can quickly become habit-forming,” Molloy says. “The more walking you do each day, the greater range of health improvements you will see, making it very worthwhile.”

Here are the rules for walking your way to better health and fitness:

Vary stride to burn more calories

Changing the pace of your walk or adding some hills can ramp up the intensity. A study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst also suggested chopping and changing your stride length to burn more calories. Researchers first asked participants to walk on a treadmill for five minutes with their usual gait while using technology to measure their average stride length.

In a repeat test, they asked the same group to walk with strides five per cent longer or shorter than usual. (Uneven strides are mentally and physically challenging, requiring greater muscular effort to stay balanced.) The results showed that for every single percentage change in step length, there was a 0.7% increase in the “metabolic cost” of walking — the activity’s energy expenditure or calorie burn.

Perfect technique first

Joanna Hall, a sport scientist and founder of the online WalkActive programme with thousands of subscribers in Ireland, says that perfecting walking technique is more important than picking up the pace for beginners. “You can’t compromise on technique for speedier walking,” Hall says. “It will backfire because you won’t get as much out of your walk physically, and it could strain muscles, leading to injury.

“It’s your arms, not your legs, that create good walking rhythm, so focus on swinging them faster in a smooth, natural motion rather than trying to step faster with your feet.”

Leaning too far forward is a mistake people make when they pick up pace — it can lead to lower back pain.

“Think about the position of your hips, keeping them level by visualising a cup of water balancing on each hip bone,” Hall says. “And it’s really important to keep your feet active by peeling and lifting your back foot off the ground with each stride as this will achieve good alignment from ankle to knee to hips.”

Take a gentle stroll

Walking your way to stress release and a clearer mind is proven to be effective. A review of studies by a research team from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), England, published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, recently found that physical activity reduced the risk of depression by 23% and anxiety by 26% with the most potent being low-intensity activity such as walking.

“Given that these levels of activity may be more achievable for people who can make smaller lifestyle changes without feeling they need to commit to a high-intensity exercise programme,” said Lee Smith, professor of public health at ARU and lead author of the paper.

Pick up the pace to improve fitness

Most studies showing that walking enhances health and fitness are based on a “brisk” walking pace of at least 100 steps per minute. Tests at the University of Massachusetts suggest 130 steps per minute constitute ‘vigorous walking’ for 21- to 60-year-olds. For the over-60s, walking close to 100 steps a minute is a good goal.

The more often you can pick up the pace, the better. Research by the University of Leicester involving more than 400,000 middle-aged adults found that fast daily walkers can have a significantly lower biological age than dawdlers.

Researchers looked at the length of participants’ telomeres, the “bumpers” that protect DNA from damage.With age and poor lifestyle habits — smoking, poor diet, inactivity — our telomeres shorten, causing accelerated ageing of cells.

However, brisk walking preserved telomere length, potentially reducing biological age by up to 16 years.

Aim for 7,000 steps a day over 40

As any fitness tracker will make you aware, a daily total of 10,000 steps is considered a golden goal for activity. There seems to be a “dose response” when it comes to health improvements. One study of 2,110 adults showed that totting up at least 7,000 daily steps from the age of 40 resulted in a 50% lower risk of premature death, but the researchers also found that people taking more than 10,000 steps a day rarely outlived those taking at least 7,000.

This finding does not mean you shouldn’t do more than 10,000 steps. “There are potential gains for fitness from doing more, but some studies show no additional advantage for longevity,” says Stacy Clemes, professor of active living and public health at Loughborough University, England.

Add hills and climb stairs

Hills and stairs provide ‘resistance’ as the body has to work against gravity to ascend an incline. Even the downhill return provides fitness benefits, strengthening the quadriceps muscles at the front of the thighs and helping to maintain good posture and balance. Studies at McMaster University in Canada have shown that brisk walking up a flight of stairs for 20 seconds (followed by a walk back down) three times a day — a daily total of 60 seconds intense exercise — for six weeks taxed the heart and lungs enough to produce a 5% improvement in cardiovascular fitness in people who did no additional exercise.