INCREASE WALKING INTENSITY FOR BETTER RESULTS WITH INTERVAL WALKING TRAINING

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INCREASE WALKING INTENSITY FOR BETTER RESULTS WITH INTERVAL WALKING TRAINING




 Health-conscious folks have been known to carry pedometers to track the number of steps they walk daily. The target number is 10,000 steps as a foundation for a healthy lifestyle. Conscientious walkers can now update their device from a pedometer to a smartphone and forget about ten thousand steps with the latest study from Dr. Shizue Masuki of Shinshu University, who found an effective way to increase overall fitness and decrease lifestyle-related disease (LSD) through Interval Walking Training (IWT). It's not how much you walk but how intensely you do so for a minimum amount of time to get positive results. This finding may be welcome news for those who want to save time and get the most out of their workout.

Interval Walking Training is the method of walking at 70% of the walker's maximum capacity for 3 minutes, then at 40% of their capacity for the next 3 minutes. This is continued for 5 or more sets. Dr. Masuki studied a group of 679 participants with a medium age of 65 for 5 months. Every two weeks, data was collected from participants at a local community office and via the Internet through the data measuring device (triaxial accelerometer). The triaxial accelerometer is a device that beeped to let the walker know when they were at least 70% of their peak aerobic capacity (VO2peak) and at 3 minutes to switch. It recorded their walking data and sent it to the central server at the administrative center for automatic analysis.

VO2peak is the amount (volume) of oxygen (O2) the body can use during physical activity. It is the milliliters of oxygen used by kilogram of body weight per minute. It is determined by measuring the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration in the participants' breath. When the VO2 number reaches a figure and plateaus during intense exercise, that is the maximum amount of oxygen the person can utilize and is an indicator of fitness. The higher the number, the more they can use, and the more intensely they can exert their body. Endurance athletes such as cyclists can have VO2peak in the 70s.

Dr Masuki found that her method outperformed the American Heart Association's recommendation that 75 minutes a week of high-intensity workout is needed for improvement to achieve peak oxygen capacity. Participants in Dr Masuki's study significantly improved their aerobic capacity (VO2peak), with 50 minutes of IWT a week. Improvements to their VO2peak were plateaued above 50 minutes a week.

With the study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Dr. Masuki's participants achieved a 14% increase in VO2peak and a 17% decrease in lifestyle-related disease (LSD) through IWT. This method is highly desirable due to its ease of maintenance. Many participants remained highly motivated and went beyond their prescribed regimen, and it does not require expensive equipment to administer.


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