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Japanese Walking Brings Interval Training to the Masses
By Najla Zaidi | 30 Jun, 2025
The Japanese walking fitness trend has gone viral online and promises major health benefits with minimal equipment and time.
Most Americans just can’t make their 10,000 steps a day because they are too busy to workout. Well, that excuse no longer stands. The latest fitness trend sweeping the internet is “Japanese walking,” or Interval Walking Training (IWT). It involves alternating between three minutes of walking at a higher intensity and three minutes at a lower intensity, repeated for at least 30 minutes, four times per week. All you need is a place to walk, a stopwatch and if available, a fitness tracker.
The higher-intensity walking is done at a level that is "somewhat hard". At this level, it is still possible to talk, but holding a full conversation would be more difficult. During those three minutes of brisk walking, aim for 70% to 85% of your maximum heart rate.
The lower-intensity walking should be done at a level that is "light". At this level, talking should be comfortable, though a little more labored than an effortless conversation. Here let your heart rate drop down to 40% to 50%.
“All movement is medicine, but if you’re short on time or want to get the most bang for your buck, this is for you,” strength training coach Eugene Teo said in a recent TikTok.
Japanese walking was developed by Professor Hiroshi Nose and Associate Professor Shizue Masuki at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan.
In a 2007 study, Japanese researchers enlisted 246 adults with an average age of 63 and divided them into three groups. One group did no walking at all. The second group walked at a steady, moderate pace, aiming for 8,000 or more steps a day at least four times per week. The third group practiced interval walking by walking slowly for three minutes, then walking quickly at a hard effort for three minutes. They repeated this cycle for 30 minutes, four or more days per week.
Researchers found that interval walking was superior to continuous walking for improving blood pressure, blood glucose levels and body mass index. It also led to the greatest improvements in leg muscle strength and aerobic capacity, which measures the maximum amount of oxygen the body can take in and use during exercise.
This low-impact regimen might even hold the key to staying in shape as you get older. A longer-term study found that the Japanese walking method helps protect against the decline in strength and fitness that naturally occurs with aging. Interval walking is “one of the most overlooked yet incredibly effective tools for improving long-term health, especially among middle-aged and older adults,” Dr. Ramit Singh Sambyal, a general physician, told Verywell Health. “By simply alternating between short periods of brisk walking and slower-paced recovery, we engage the cardiovascular system in a much more dynamic way,” he added.
Achieving a certain number of steps per day has also been shown to help people live longer. For those aged 60 and older, the target should be around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day and 8,000 to 10,000 for those aged under 60. Similar evidence does not appear to exist for Japanese walking yet.
Research suggests that people who regularly perform more bouts of moderate to vigorous physical activity live longer, regardless of how long each bout is. This means that we should focus on ensuring we perform regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and make it habitual. If that activity happens to be Japanese walking, then it's a solid choice.
The core of the workout is to walk fast for three minutes, then slow for three minutes, repeating this cycle for a total of 30 minutes.
The Japanese walking trend is easy yet effective.
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