How far you walk may be more important than speed to fix chronic back pain

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While walking is beneficial for reducing the risk of lingering chronic low back pain, experts say that it is how you walk that really matters.

Walking more is a bigger factor than how fast you walk, Norwegian researchers said on Friday.

“Our findings suggest that daily walking volume is more important than mean walking intensity in reducing the risk of chronic lower back pain,” they wrote in a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The authors also found that walking for more than 100 minutes a day — or an hour and forty minutes — was associated with a 23 percent lower risk of chronic low back pain compared with walking fewer than 78 minutes a day. Walking 125 minutes or more daily also lowered the risk by 24 percent.

The study included data from more than 11,000 patients aged 20 years and older, who were a part of the Trøndelag Health Study.

Walking more is a bigger factor than how fast you move to slash the risk for chronic back pain, researchers said Friday. They also found 100 minutes or more of walking each day can reduce that risk by 23 percent (AFP via Getty Images)

Their health was first assessed during the years from 2017 to 2019. The authors later followed up from 2021 to 2023. Participants did not have chronic low back pain at the start of the study. To measure their walking, they wore accelerometers.

Following just over four years, 1,659 participants reported experiencing chronic low back pain.

They noted that participants with a higher walking volume tended to exercise more often and that the reduction in risk of chronic low back pain leveled off beyond walking for 100 minutes a day.

Walking can help to strengthen the muscles that support the spine. Being active in nature also helps (AFP via Getty Images)

Still, they urged that these findings could inform policy related to the costly condition going forward.

The findings come after previous research that also identified being active as a way to alleviate chronic low back pain. Back pain affects more than a quarter of Americans. Another study last year found that people with chronic low back pain who walked 30 minutes a day for five days a week went twice as long without a recurrence as those who did not walk, according to UCLA Health. Approximately 70 percent of individuals experience a recurrence of low back pain within 12 months following recovery from an episode, Australian researchers found.

Walking can help to strengthen the muscles that support the spine, and increase circulation and joint mobilization, according to Healthline.

It is the sixth-most costly condition in the U.S. and can be incredibly debilitating, making even standing up or sitting at work a struggle.

“If confirmed by future research, these results could inform public health strategies aimed at preventing chronic low back pain, as well as complementing current guidelines that solely report on physical activity as a secondary prevention tool,” they said.