What makes walking so good for your health and what else should you do?

Janet Rapp walked briskly along a paved path through the city zoo, waving to friends and pausing to greet emus she knows by name.

The 71-year-old retiree starts this way every morning with a walking club.

“I'm obsessed,” she said. Not only does it relieve her joint pain, “it just gives me energy… And then it calms me down too.”

Medical experts agree that walking is an easy way to improve physical and mental health, improve fitness and prevent disease. While it's not the only form of exercise people should do, it's a great first step toward a healthy life.

“You don't need any equipment and you don't need a gym membership,” says Dr. Sarah Eby, a sports medicine physician at Mass General Brigham. “And the benefits are so great.”

What can walking do for you?

Walking can help meet the U.S. Surgeon General's recommendation that adults do at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. This helps lower the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, dementia, depression and many types of cancer.

Walking also improves blood sugar levels, is good for bone health and can help you lose weight and sleep better, says Julie Schmied, a nurse at Norton Healthcare, which runs the free Get Healthy Walking Club.

Another advantage? It is a low-impact exercise that puts less stress on the joints as it strengthens your heart and lungs.

James Blankenship, 68, said joining the walking club at the Louisville Zoo last year helped him bounce back from a heart attack and a triple bypass in 2022.

“My cardiologist says I'm doing fine,” he said.

For all its benefits, however, walking is “not enough for overall health and well-being” because it doesn't provide resistance training that builds muscle strength and endurance, says Anita Gust, who teaches exercise science at the University of Minnesota Crookston.

This is especially important for women's bone health as they age.

Experts recommend adding such activities at least twice a week – using weights, fitness equipment or your own body as resistance – and doing exercises that improve flexibility, such as yoga or stretching.

Do you really need 10,000 steps a day?

Almost everyone has heard of this hiking goal, which dates back to a 1960s marketing campaign in Japan. But experts emphasize that it is only a guideline.

The average American walks about 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, and it's fine to gradually work your way up to 10,000, Shmied said.

Setting a time goal can also be helpful. Shmied suggests breaking the recommended 150 minutes per week into 30 minutes per day, or 10 minutes three times a day, for five days. In bad weather, people can walk in shopping centers or on treadmills.

As they become seasoned hikers, they can pick up the pace or challenge themselves with hills while still keeping the activity level moderate.

“If you can talk but not sing,” Eby said, “then we consider moderate-intensity exercise.”

How do you stay motivated?

Walking with friends, including dogs, is one way.

Walking clubs have sprung up throughout the country. In 2022, New York personal trainer Brianna Joye Kohn, 31, started City Girls Who Walk with a TikTok post inviting others to walk with her.

“We had 250 girls show up,” she said.

Since then, the group has walked for about 40 minutes every Sunday, meeting afterwards for brunch or coffee.

The Louisville Zoo launched its walking club in 1987 and partnered with Norton to expand it in 2004, and now has more than 15,000 registered members. From March 1 through October 31, people walk around and around the 1.4-mile loop every day before the zoo officially opens.

Tony Weiter meets with two of his siblings every Friday. On a recent morning, they caught up on each other's lives as they sped past zebras in a fenced field and a seal sunning itself.

“I enjoy the peace of it. It's cold but the sun is shining. You get to see the animals,” said Weiter, 63. “It's a great way to start the morning.”

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