Should You Try the Japanese Walking Method?

Walking is a free, low-intensity, form of exercise that can help you de-stress and improve your cardiovascular health. But what about the Japanese walking method, the latest darling of FitTok, that has people hooked? Is it any more effective than just plain old regular walking? We spoke to experts to find out.

What Is the Japanese Walking Method?

The Japanese walking method alternates between three minutes of fast-paced walking and three minutes of slower-paced walking for 30 minutes with no rest. As a form of high-intensity interval training (or HIIT exercise), it’s particularly effective, according to Hiroshi Nose and Shizue Masuki, the two Japanese professors from Shinshu University whose research originated the method in a study with 246 participants.

While the study was published in 2020, the two researchers, in an email to GQ, attributed the popularity of the viral walking method to Japanese news coverage of interval walking training that exposed it to international audiences as well.

Nose and Masuki’s study claims that people who did the Japanese walking method over five months lowered their blood pressure more than those who did moderate-intensity continuous walking, or 10,000 steps a day, for the same amount of time.

However, Carol Garber, a professor in applied physiology at the University of Columbia, says that there isn’t sufficient evidence in the study to determine whether the Japanese walking method is more effective than continuous walking.

“People have varied responses to the exact same exercise program,” says Dr. Garber. “Some people might have some big improvements, and some people might not change very much.”

According to Dr. Garber, both high-intensity and continuous walking have the potential to improve your fitness, as long as you keep working on movement.

Benefits of the Japanese Walking Method

That being said, trying the Japanese Walking Method as a form of exercise still has plenty of benefits. The most crucial part of which comes from the approach’s fast-paced spurts.

“The one that really gives you the biggest benefit is the harder interval,” Dr. Garber says. “It gives you a chance to keep feeling like you’re short of breath, your heart rate speeding fast.”

Any kind of internal training, including the Japanese walking method, has the potential to improve your maximum oxygen uptake, or VO2 max, a “gold standard of exercise capacity,” says Dr. Garber. According to her, it’s the time spent in the more vigorous harder exercise, those three-minute harder bounds that contribute to that.

“It’s not about pushing the body more,” adds Lauren Schramm, a global trainer for Nike and Pilates coach. “It’s more about asking the body to build endurance in the heart rate zone.”

How to Practice the Japanese Walking Method

During the faster-intensity portion, Schramm says to keep the heart rate range at 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate, or Zone 2.