All About The Benefits Of Interval Walking Training

The benefits of walking for physical health– including bone health– are well known. You may be less familiar with Interval Walking Training and how it benefits not only your physical wellbeing but also your mental health.

In this article, we'll examine research showing how aerobic exercises such as walking change brain chemistry in ways that support mental health. Then you'll get a guide to Interval Walking Training that you can easily implement on your next walk.

We'll also review how walking's mental health benefits wrap back around to support your bones and your ability to prevent and reverse osteoporosis.

Mental Health Benefits Of Walking

Walking benefits bone health directly by stimulating the formation of new bone. Wolff's Law describes this action: your bone tissue adapts to use by strengthening to support that use.

The benefits of walking go beyond its direct stimulation of bone remodeling. A growing body of research has found that exercise– and specifically aerobic exercise such as walking — has measurable positive impacts on mental health.^{1, 2}

• Preventing Depression Symptoms – Exercise has been shown to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, potentially alleviating depressive symptoms associated with inflammation. Exercise also helps improve circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, supporting mood regulation and energy levels.²
• Prevents Cortisol Spikes – The physical stress caused by aerobic exercise prepares your body to more effectively manage psychological stress from outside factors and life events. Both types of stress initiate the release of cortisol, the stress hormone, but what happens next differs significantly.When the body releases cortisol during exercise, it quickly downregulates it to an inactive form and clears it from the system after about two hours. Cortisol released due to psychological stress tends to inundate the system and linger for much longer, causing inflammation and disruption to important processes like bone formation. Regular exercise improves your body's ability to regulate cortisol released during psychological stress, reducing bone-damaging cortisol spikes and reducing circulating cortisol levels.¹
• Enhanced Mood – Endorphins are popularly cited as the neurochemical cause of “runner's high” — the positive feeling that follows aerobic exercise. However, many scientists dispute this common notion. The feeling is real, but the cause might be different than we think. However, compounds called endocannabinoids—particularly one called anandamide (AEA)—may actually be responsible for these positive feelings. This neurochemical helps to regulate amygdala hyperactivity, giving exercise its ability to alleviate depression and anxiety.¹
• Promote Neuroplasticity – Exercise increases levels of Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). BDNF benefits cognition by enhancing neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and long-term potentiation (which facilitates learning). This means that exercise enhances your ability to learn new skills and change. Studies have found that healthy elderly people can increase their serum BDNF levels through moderate intensity walking– which can help to improve or maintain cognitive function that would otherwise decline with age.¹

Synopsis

The mental health benefits of walking include amelioration of depression symptoms, improved stress management, positive feelings, reduced anxiety, and increased neuroplasticity that facilitates learning.

A Guide To Interval Walking Training

Interval Walking Training (IWT) was developed in Japan as a physical training method for older adults. It consists of cycles of fast and slow walking. What constitutes “fast” and “slow” depends on who is doing the walking– making it a highly adaptable intervention.³

The original Interval Walking Training protocol consists of

• No less than five cycles alternating between fast and slow walking
• 3 minutes at each speed
• The fast speed should be at about 70% of the walker's maximum potential intensity
• The slow speed should be at about 30% of the walker's maximum potential intensity

To start interval walking training, all you need is a timer (most people's cell phones have one built in) and a place to walk! You can use these instructions to get started:

• Set your timer to 3 minutes, but don't start it yet
• Start your walk at a comfortable, steady pace, intentional, but not fast. This will be your “slow” pace
• Now speed up your walk– not to your maximum pace, but to a quick but sustainable pace that requires some exertion. That will be your “fast” walk
• Once you've found your fast pace, start your 3-minute timer
• When it goes off, return to your “slow” pace and restart your 3-minute timer
• When it goes off, return to your “fast” pace and restart your 3-minute timer
• Complete at least five full cycles if you can, walking 3 minutes at each speed, for a total of 30 minutes
• As you build stamina, you can add more cycles

Studies on Interval Walking Training confirm that there are no general safety concerns, even for older adults or people with chronic conditions.³ If you can walk, this is an excellent way to maximize the benefits of walking for exercise.

Synopsis

Interval walking training is highly adaptable to different fitness levels and is easy to implement. Check out the step-by-step instructions above to try it.

Why Mental Health Benefits Also Support Bone Health

A holistic view of health reveals the deep interconnectedness of bodily systems, including the ways mental health indirectly affects bone health.

Following a bone-healthy lifestyle involves building and maintaining habits that support strong bones. Good mental health is essential to this process. Mental health problems such as depression and anxiety can impede your ability to follow through with the bone-healthy behaviors you have planned.

Mental health also includes mood and outlook. Building a positive outlook, with an optimistic view of your potential, is essential to staying on the path to a healthier future. Pessimism and negativity can quickly mire you in doubt and self-judgment that pull you off course.

The cyclical relationship between exercise and mental health can make it hard to know how to break a negative cycle of poor mental health and inadequate exercise and start building a positive cycle of good mental health and regular physical activity.

Simple exercises such as Interval Walking Training offer excellent ways to increase physical activity levels when mental health challenges make it difficult to begin a more intensive program. It's important to start where you are, take things one step at a time (literally!), and remember that every action represents progress, no matter how small.

Synopsis

Your mental health has indirect impacts on your bone health via the bone-healthy behaviors that mental health can either support or impede. Break the cycle of poor mental health and inadequate exercise by introducing simple but effective physical activities such as interval walking training.

What This Means To You

Strap on your walking shoes and give Interval Walking Training a try. Better yet, find a friend or two and challenge each other to make this exercise a new shared activity. Sometimes, adding a social element to your workouts can help you stay accountable to sticking with them.

Once you've got IWT firmly in your routine, check out SaveTrainer to learn your next bone-targeted exercise. SaveTrainer is the Save Institute's online video-workout platform. It's filled with expert-led video classes designed to meet you where you're at.

Whether you're an experienced athlete or just getting started, SaveTrainer has workouts at your level, available anytime, anywhere .

Don't delay the start of your journey to stronger bones, better health, and an active, independent future.

References

¹ https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01890/full

² https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11298280/

³ https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/apnm-2023-0595