I Tried the Japanese Walking Routine Everyone's Talking About—Is It Worth the Hype?
There's no shortage of fitness fads, and the latest one to take over my social media feeds is the Japanese walking trend. The workout is easy, quick, and promises to lower blood pressure—as long as you're consistent—so I tried it for a week to see if it's as good as the fitfluencers say.
Essentially, this is a 30-minute high-intensity walking workout. Here's how it works:
Do three minutes of fast walking (about 70% of your peak aerobic capacity)
Switch to three minutes of slow walking (about 40% of your peak aerobic capacity)
Repeat the intervals for a total of 30 minutes
Unlike some fitness trends, this workout is backed by science! Researchers created the routine nearly 20 years ago and tested it on adults who were, on average, 63 years old. The study found that adults who completed the walk four days a week had lower blood pressure compared to those who didn't do the workout. The Japanese walking routine has taken off on TikTok, and popular fitness coach Eugene Teo even said it is a great way to get your steps in.
I trained for the REAL SIMPLE Women's Half Marathon in 2024 and loved running so much that I kept up with it until a few months ago. Now that I'm out of practice, I can run for a mile (very slowly), so this was a nice way to ease back into things. The faster-paced intervals were long enough that I felt challenged, but not too long that I needed to stop before the time was up. Having the recovery time was nice as I didn't feel as tired as I typically do after a run. However, it took a while for my heart rate to recover enough to reach 40% of my peak aerobic capacity. For example, it sometimes took half of the interval before my heart rate was low enough, but since I felt recovered, I stuck with the three minutes.
You do have to keep track of time, meaning you can't zone out! To make it easy, I programmed the routine in my Apple Watch. This way, I got alerts when it was time for a new interval.
Compared to other walking workouts, such as the popular 12-30-3 workout, I enjoyed this one much more. (If you don't know, 12-30-3 was a popular treadmill walk where you set the incline at 13, the pace at 3 miles per hour, and move for 30 minutes.) I've found that walking at the same pace for 30 minutes can get boring. But I gave that one another go to see how it compares to the Japanese walking routine in terms of average heart rate and distance. I found that both walking methods produced similar results, according to my watch.
Over the week, I noticed the walk became easier, and I had to walk faster to ensure I reached 40% of my peak aerobic capacity. If you're looking to get into running (or get back into running, as in my case), this is a great way to do it! I'll continue to use this as my main form of cardio as I build back up. Plus, it's only 30 minutes, and can be done nearly anywhere.
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