According to researchers, there is no need to become a marathon runner to see a significant improvement in the quality of our life and avoid the risk of early death
We often repeat it in our articles: Physical activity is essential for a healthy life and healthy and to be able to maintain agile and toned muscles over time, even when the years pass and we are no longer as young as we once were.
It is not necessary to do intense physical activity – especially if we have not become accustomed to demanding physical efforts at a young age: Even a brisk walk is enough to immediately feel the benefits for body and mind.
In addition to ensuring agile joints and preventing the onset of numerous chronic diseases (from diabetes to hypertension, from obesity to respiratory diseases), walking would extend our life expectancy… by at least three years!
This was revealed by a study conducted by London School of Economicswhich examined the behaviors and habits of one million people in the UK and South Africa between 2013 and 2023.
Read also: How many steps should you really take in a day?
The investigation
The objective of the research was identify those small habits that can be carried forward for years and which, in the long term, can contribute to improving the quality of our life and our state of health.
In fact, our well-being depends on the quality of our habits: healthy habits – such as a healthy diet, constant physical activity, limited consumption of alcohol and sugars – they can greatly improve our lives.
The great thing about habits is that it’s never too late to start: even if until now we have led a lazy and sedentary lifestyle, nothing prevents us from introducing the habit of walking to improve our well-being.
Read also: 21 days are enough to create a new habit (and to definitively abandon a bad one)
The analysis of the data collected demonstrated that small changes in the direction of a healthier lifestyle they had large positive impacts across all age groups, but were extremely significant for people aged 65 and older.
Those over 65 who have maintained the habit of walking three or more times a week have seen a 52% reduction in mortality risk due to the onset of chronic pathologies linked to a sedentary lifestyle.
People between the ages of 45 and 65, however, have saw a 38% reduction in mortality riskwhile the total population saw a reduction of 27%.
But how many steps do you need to take? to extend your life expectancy and keep away chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and hypercholesterolemia?
The researchers have no doubts: 5,000 to 7,500 steps per day are enoughthree times a week, to achieve a significant reduction in mortality associated with these pathologies.
Across all age groups, those who maintained the habit of physical activity three times a week for more than two years were able to “add” between 2.5 years (for men) and 3 years (for women) to your life expectancy.
How to introduce a new habit
In addition to clarifying how many steps were needed to improve our well-being, the researchers also identified three golden rules for starting this new habit.
Start slowly
Driven by the initial motivation, we would like to immediately take our 5,000 daily steps – even if until yesterday we also took the lift to get down from home!
Motivation, however, is a double-edged sword: it provides us with enthusiasm to get started, but it runs out too quickly to allow us to continue a habit for a long enough period of time.
Let’s therefore avoid being too pretentious, but start with a short daily walk at a slow pace: we will have a much better chance of maintaining the habit than those who start with high intensity training.
Set a realistic goal
We set a goal based on our existing habits. For example, if we are inactive people, we start with 2,500 steps three to five times a week to mark the “first step on the ladder” and then intensify the activity.
Be consistent
To build a habit that lasts, we must first start it. In the early stages, let’s not focus too much on improving performance or quickly reaching our goal.
Let’s just think about walking, just to get into the habit. At a later time, when we master the new habit (this happens after six/eight weeks), we can increase the intensity.
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Source: Vitality Global
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