Try Japanese Walking If You Hate Running
If running scares you, know that there is another way to get some fresh air while still getting in a fairly intense workout. It’s called interval walking (IWT), or sometimes “Japanese walking” or “3×3 walking.” It’s a form of HIIT, but it won’t leave you falling to the floor hating your life. Here’s how to do it.
How to do the 3×3 Japanese Walking Workout
The original protocol for this exercise, published here in 2007 by Hiroshi Nose’s team at Shinshu University in Japan, used a lab test to help people determine how fast they should walk during exercise. Since that’s impractical for most of us, a common substitute is to use perceived effort. During the high-intensity portions, you walk at a strong, brisk pace—about as fast as you can without running or getting too tired. During the low-intensity portions, you walk at a normal pace.
So here’s the protocol. It’s simple and doesn’t require a warm-up, so you can get started right away:
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Walk at a normal pace for three minutes.
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Walk for three minutes at high intensity (as fast as you can).
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Repeat these two steps for 30 minutes or more.
To track these intervals, you can program any smartwatch to beep at three-minute intervals, or just use your phone. I like the free Intervals Pro app on my iPhone; try Interval Timer on Android.
In a 2007 study, older adults who did this workout four or more times a week for five months finished the study with better aerobic fitness and leg strength than they had at the start. If you’ve ever wondered if walking counts as exercise , it certainly does.
Why Interval Walking Is the New HIIT
Interval walking is becoming increasingly popular. Garmin’s latest active lifestyle watch, the Vivoactive 6, comes with walking workouts that include intervals similar to those in the 3×3 workout. You can see examples of Garmin walking workouts in my watch review here .
Why the love of walking? I see a few forces at work here. First, there’s a lot of over-ambitious attitude in the fitness world, especially on social media. If you’ve been through a few rounds of the HIIT hype, you may be tired of trying to push yourself harder and harder (or you may have been so intimidated by the idea that you never tried).
The backlash against high-intensity fitness can go too far in the other direction, telling people (often women who have been told to worry about their cortisol ) that they don’t need to lift weights or work hard at the gym; they can just go for walks and do gentle yoga or Pilates. Take this advice seriously enough, and you’ll end up not getting much exercise at all.
Interval walking falls somewhere in the middle—harder than a hot girl walk or cozy cardio , but easier (and more fun!) than 12-3-30 on the treadmill. Interval walking is especially accessible to people who don’t have a gym membership or fitness clothes: All you need is a pair of shoes that are comfortable to walk in.
And here, I think, is where the real magic of walking comes in: it stops you from thinking too much about your fitness program and allows you to just get started. You won’t be tempted to think too much about your running shoes or your fitness watch – you just get out there and walk.