Walking your way to better health may not require quite as many steps as you think.

While 10,000 steps per day has become an oft-cited goal, two recent research studies found that far fewer steps are associated with a variety of health benefits—so long as you pick up the pace or increase your daily step count. 

Even walking less than 5,000 steps per day, but at a faster pace, lowers the risk of death, according to the authors of a study published earlier this month by the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). And every additional 1,000 steps people walk each day, up to 10,000 steps, is associated with a significantly lower risk of death, heart failure and heart attacks, according to a study published last year in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

The pace that’s most optimal for lowering various health risks was at about 100 steps per minute for 30 minutes per day, according to the BJSM study. That works out to walking one mile in about 20 to 25 minutes. Even for people who can’t walk quite so briskly, the authors found that “increasing daily step counts at a slower pace might be an alternative avenue.”

Similarly, the EJPC study found that, for people with hypertension, incremental 1,000-step increases in daily step count—particularly at a higher stepping intensity—can substantially lower the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. 

Such research only adds to a long list of others that conclude that walking is one of the best forms of exercise .

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