What is Japanese walking?
Japanese walking is the popular name for interval walking training (IWT), a method developed by Professor Hiroshi Nose and his team at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan. Instead of walking at one steady pace, you switch between slow and brisk walking every 3 minutes.
The idea is that short bouts of harder effort push your heart, lungs and leg muscles more than a steady stroll, while the slow intervals let you recover so you can keep going. In their research, middle-aged and older adults did this for 30 minutes on 4 or more days a week (Nemoto et al., 2007).
How to do it, step by step
- Start slow (3 minutes). Walk at an easy, relaxed pace. This doubles as your warm-up.
- Go brisk (3 minutes). Lengthen your stride, swing your arms and walk fast enough that it feels "somewhat hard".
- Back to slow (3 minutes). Let your breathing settle while you keep moving.
- Repeat. One slow walk plus one brisk walk is one round. Do 5 rounds for 30 minutes.
- Cool down. Finish with a few minutes of easy walking and some light calf and thigh stretches.
The free timer on our homepage does the switching for you: a soft chime for each slow walk, a bright chime for each brisk walk, and a finishing chime at the end.
How fast should you walk?
The research used effort, not speed: roughly 40% of your peak walking capacity for the slow walk and 70% or more for the brisk walk. You don't need a lab to find that. Use these cues:
| Aspect | Slow walk | Brisk walk |
|---|---|---|
| Effort (0–10) | 3–4, easy | 6–7, somewhat hard |
| Talk test | Full conversation, could sing | Short sentences, can't sing |
| Breathing | Relaxed | Clearly deeper and faster |
| Stride | Natural | Longer steps, strong arm swing |
If you have a heart-rate monitor, your brisk intervals should feel clearly harder than your slow ones, but the "right" number depends on your age, fitness and any medication you take, so go by feel first.
A 4-week beginner plan
If 30 minutes of intervals feels like a lot, build up. You can set any of these in the timer in a few seconds.
| Week | Slow / brisk | Rounds | Total | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 min / 1.5 min | 4 | 18 min | 3 |
| 2 | 3 min / 2 min | 4 | 20 min | 3–4 |
| 3 | 3 min / 3 min | 4 | 24 min | 4 |
| 4+ | 3 min / 3 min | 5 | 30 min | 4+ |
This is a suggested progression, not part of the original studies. If a week feels too hard, repeat it. If it feels easy, move on.
Tips to get more out of it
- Find a loop without many stops. Traffic lights break up brisk intervals. Use Pause if you have to wait.
- Use hills. Walking uphill during brisk intervals gets your effort up without walking faster.
- Treadmill? Pick an easy speed and a brisk speed (or add incline) and switch on each chime.
- Wear headphones on busy roads so you hear the chimes, or turn on vibration on Android.
- Keep the screen on. Browsers pause web timers when a phone is locked. Keep this tab open, or use our free Android app for screen-off cues.
- Be consistent. The studies ran for 4 to 5 months. Most benefits come from doing it week after week.
Common mistakes
- Brisk walks that aren't brisk enough. If you could sing, speed up.
- Turning slow walks into stops. Keep moving. Active recovery is part of the method.
- Starting too hard. Sore shins and calves are common if you jump straight to 30 minutes. Build up.
- Skipping weeks. Aim for at least 4 sessions a week; short sessions beat none.
Is it right for you?
Interval walking is low impact and was studied mainly in people around 60 to 70 years old. Even so, check with a doctor before starting if you have a heart, lung, joint or blood pressure condition, are pregnant, or haven't exercised in a long time. Stop and get help if you feel chest pain, dizziness or unusual breathlessness.
Want to know what the research actually found? Read the science behind Japanese walking, or see how it compares with walking 10,000 steps a day.