What is Japanese walking — and does it actually work?

Japanese walking may sound like some new way of moving your body, but it’s the same walking you’ve always done, just at specific paces. Although it was first documented about 20 years ago, Japanese walking has recently gone viral, with people loving its easy-to-remember, highly customizable, straightforward approach. Best of all: This trend is backed by science, only takes 30 minutes, and can really benefit your health. Here's a closer look at why it’s trending, how to do it, and what it does for your body. 

Key Takeaways

• Japanese walking is a 30-minute interval workout that alternates three minutes of low-intensity walking with three minutes of high-intensity walking.

• Research shows that a consistent routine of Japanese walking improves measures of fitness, leg strength, and blood pressure. 

• Like most forms of exercise, Japanese walking can support healthy weight loss and weight maintenance.

Japanese walking refers to an exercise protocol first described in a 2007 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. It supposedly gets its name because the research came out of the Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Matsumoto, Japan. 

This walking exercise alternates intervals of high-intensity with low-intensity walking to benefit your fitness and cardiovascular health and deliver benefits beyond regular walking. “Repeated hard efforts allow us to work out at a higher intensity for a longer period of time,” says Tom Holland, M.S., CSCS, an exercise physiologist and adjunct professor in biomechanics and strength and conditioning at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

Japanese walking is easy to follow and can be individualized based on your current fitness level. Here are the specifics:

The 3-minute intervals 

For Japanese walking, simply alternate your speed for three minutes at a time. It works like this:

• Start by walking for three minutes at a low intensity.

• Walk for three minutes at a high intensity.

• Repeat at least five times, for a total of 30 minutes.

Low intensity vs. high intensity  

You’re instructed to walk the high-intensity interval at 70% of your peak aerobic capacity, but what does that mean? An easy gauge of high intensity is to think of your effort on a scale of 0 to 10. For a seven on the scale, which is considered a vigorous effort, you shouldn’t be able to say more than a few words without pausing to breathe. 

During the low-intensity portions, aim for 40% of your peak aerobic capacity. This means you should catch your breath to the point where you can hold a short conversation. 

How often to do Japanese walking

Adults are advised to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity — or a combination of both — throughout the week. Japanese walking is a great way to hit those goals. In the study, participants did the 30-minute workout at least four times per week. That’s what led to the health benefits outlined in the study, which we’ll get to in a minute.

One of the great things about the Japanese interval walking method is that its benefits are scientifically verified. The original 2007 study found that doing this workout for five months improved VO2 max, which is a measure of how well your body can use oxygen during exercise and a good indicator of how well your heart and lungs function. Compared to people who walked at a steady, moderate pace, people in the interval walking group also had greater improvements in their leg strength and blood pressure. 

Alternating high- and low-intensity periods of walking provides a host of health benefits. 

Improves aerobic fitness

Fast intervals are more challenging to your body compared to a steady speed because they “require your heart to pump more blood per beat,” explains Holland. They also help improve your body’s ability to deliver oxygen to muscles and utilize that oxygen, he says. This translates into better stamina. 

All exercise works the heart, but “high intensity interval training is particularly good, even compared to other types of exercise, at improving cardiovascular fitness,” says Sharon Gam, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist and founder of Lifted Strength Club in Orlando, FL. 

Lowers blood pressure and blood sugar

Interval workouts also trigger the release of nitric oxide from blood vessels, helping them to open up to improve blood flow (and reduce blood pressure). Plus, muscles use sugar from your bloodstream for energy when you work out. That, in turn, may play a role in decreasing your risk of certain health issues and improving longevity. “Having high cardiovascular fitness is one of the strongest predictors of life expectancy,” says Gam.

Strengthens leg muscles

In order to walk faster, your stride lengthens and you make faster contact with the ground, says Colin G. Pennington, Ph.D., an assistant professor in exercise science at Gwynedd Mercy University in Pennsylvania. This activates more motor units (a network consisting of a nerve cell and muscle fibers that generate force) and fast-twitch muscle fibers that aren’t recruited during steady-state walking, he says. The result can be: stronger quadriceps, hamstring, and glutes. And building muscle is especially important as you age or lose weight, as both can cause muscle loss. That said, it’s still important to include specific days of strength training into your weekly routine, rather than relying on walking. 

Doesn’t put strain on your joints

Although interval walking with high-intensity intervals places a higher impact on your body than continuous walking, it’s still gentler on your body than other activities like jogging or running. “One foot is always on the ground,” says Holland, lowering the force absorbed by your joints. This can reduce joint pain and stiffness afterwards and lower your risk of injury.

Walking for weight loss can benefit some people — especially if done with faster intervals which can make your body work harder. It can also help you have more overall steps, which can boost weight loss. (Research suggests that people should aim for 8,500 steps per day during weight loss and throughout weight maintenance). 

Gam does point out one thing, and that’s the importance of nutrition. “If weight loss is someone’s primary goal, then they should make sure to incorporate a healthy eating plan alongside exercise,” she says. That doesn’t mean eating less. It means eating better. Weight Watchers teaches you how to do just this — fueling your body (not depriving it) with nutrient-rich foods that fill you up, support your weight loss, and boost your health. 

There’s a reason that physical activity is part of Weight Watchers’ Core+ and Med+ GLP-1 Success Program: Exercising while taking a weight-loss medication can help you improve your overall health, hold on to more muscle, and minimize possible side effects like gastrointestinal issues. Having a workout routine in place could also help you maintain your weight if you decide to go off the medication, research suggests.

But working out while taking a GLP-1 can be easier said than done. There’s some early data suggesting that people who start taking GLP-1 medication tend to decrease their moderate-to-vigorous exercise from 28 minutes a day to 22. (One group that didn’t happen to: Med+ Members prescribed a GLP-1 and given the Weight Watchers GLP-1 Success Program increased the number of days they did strength training by 53.2%.*)

Because Japanese walking is so approachable and doable (no equipment needed!), it can be a great way to stay active while on GLP-1 medication, particularly in combination with strength training. 

Simply follow the 3-minute x 3-minute protocol outlined above. The researchers who authored the study noted that they chose the interval times specifically because these durations hit the sweet spot: longer than three minutes at the higher intensity got too hard, and three minutes of low-intensity walking provided ample time for recovery.

That said, you can also start interval walking with shorter durations. “Walk fast until you start to get out of breath, then walk more slowly until you recover,” recommends Holland. This approach requires no watch, but if you want to go by time, then try a 30-second fast walking interval — or even less. “Start slow. If it’s fast walking for 10 seconds, that’s awesome,” he says. Your duration will get longer over time as you build stamina.

You can also adjust the number of interval sets, adds Pennington. Rather than a total of five sets alternating low- and high-intensity walking, try two or three and increase from there. 

And of course, you can start by doing this one or two times a week instead of four. “I recommend increasing one thing at a time to prevent overdoing it,” Gam says. “For example, start by increasing the number of weekly sessions, then increase the number of sets in each session, then increase your high-intensity walking speed, rather than trying to do too much all at once.”

Japanese walking is an interval workout alternating three minutes of fast walking with three minutes of slow walking. The faster intervals can help improve cardiovascular fitness and strengthen your lower body muscles without putting too much impact on your joints. You can customize the length of the intervals and how many you do to fit your fitness level. With Japanese walking — and most forms of exercise, really — the biggest thing is pushing yourself so your body is challenged.