Longer Walking Sessions vs Short Walks: New Evidence

Summary: This article explains why longer walking sessions may deliver greater health benefits than multiple short walks. Drawing on a large UK Biobank study of over 33,000 low-activity adults, it shows that people who consolidate their steps into longer, uninterrupted bouts have significantly lower risks of early death and cardiovascular disease, regardless of total step count. Readers will learn what the study found, how walking duration affects mortality and heart disease risk, and why this insight matters especially for sedentary individuals.

Why One Long Walk May Be Better Than Many Short Ones

What if how you walk matters more than how much you walk?

Emerging evidence suggests that longer walking sessions, not just total daily steps, play a critical role in reducing the risk of early death and heart disease, particularly among people who are otherwise inactive.

A large population-based study from the UK offers compelling insight into this question. Researchers found that adults who grouped their steps into longer, uninterrupted walks experienced markedly better long-term health outcomes than those whose movement was scattered across short bursts throughout the day.

How You Walk May Matter More Than Total Steps

The study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, investigated whether the pattern of step accumulation influences health outcomes independently of the total number of daily steps. Importantly, the analysis focused on low-activity adults, defined as those taking fewer than 8,000 steps per day (<8,000 steps per day).

Using data from the UK Biobank, researchers examined 33,560 adults and categorized them based on the typical duration of their walking bouts:

Less than 5 minutes
5 to less than 10 minutes
10 to less than 15 minutes
15 minutes or longer

The median daily step count among participants was 5,165 steps, reinforcing that this was a largely sedentary population.

Walking Patterns in the Study Population

The way participants accumulated their steps varied considerably:

42.9% took most of their steps in bouts lasting under 5 minutes
33.5% primarily walked in 5–10 minute sessions
15.5% accumulated steps in 10–15 minute bouts
Only 8.0% regularly walked in sessions lasting 15 minutes or longer

This distribution allowed researchers to compare health outcomes across different walking patterns directly.

Mortality Risk Drops as Walking Sessions Get Longer

Over a 9.5-year follow-up, a clear and graded association emerged between walking duration and all-cause mortality.

Participants whose steps mostly came from bouts shorter than 5 minutes had an all-cause mortality risk of 4.36% (95% CI, 3.52%–5.19%).
Those walking in 5–10 minute bouts had a reduced risk of 1.83% (CI, 1.29%–2.36%).
Mortality risk dropped further to 0.84% (CI, 0.13%–1.53%) among people walking in 10–15 minute sessions.
The lowest risk—0.80% (CI, 0.00%–1.89%)—was seen in participants who regularly walked for 15 minutes or more at a stretch.

These findings highlight a strong inverse relationship between walking bout length and risk of death from any cause.

Heart Disease Risk Shows an Even Stronger Pattern

The association was even more pronounced for cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes.

After 9.5 years:

Participants walking mostly in bouts under 5 minutes had a cumulative CVD risk of 13.03% (CI, 11.92%–14.14%).
Those in the 5–10 minute group had a lower risk of 11.09% (CI, 9.88%–12.29%).
Risk declined to 7.71% (CI, 5.67%–9.70%) among individuals walking in 10–15 minute sessions.
The lowest CVD risk, 4.39% (CI, 1.89%–6.83%), was observed in those walking in bouts of 15 minutes or longer.

This stepwise reduction suggests that longer, continuous walking may be particularly protective against heart disease.

Bigger Benefits for the Most Sedentary Adults

The benefits of longer walking sessions were even more striking among the most inactive participants, those taking fewer than 5,000 steps per day (<5,000 steps per day).

In this subgroup, walking for longer periods at a time was strongly associated with substantially lower risks of both:

All-cause mortality
Cardiovascular disease

This indicates that people who struggle to increase total daily steps may still gain meaningful health benefits simply by changing how they walk.

Why Longer, Uninterrupted Walks May Matter

Physiologically, longer walking bouts may allow sustained increases in heart rate, improved vascular function, better glucose utilization, and enhanced metabolic efficiency, effects that may not be fully achieved with fragmented movement. While total physical activity remains important, this study reinforces that walking continuity is a clinically relevant factor.

Conclusion: Walk Smarter, Not Just More

In summary, this large UK study shows that longer walking sessions are associated with significantly lower risks of early death and cardiovascular disease among low-activity adults, even when total step counts remain modest. For sedentary individuals, focusing on longer, intentional walks may be a practical and achievable strategy to improve long-term health.

If you cannot walk more, consider walking longer at a stretch.

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I am an MBBS graduate and a dedicated medical writer with a strong passion for deep research and psychology. I enjoy breaking down complex medical topics into engaging, easy-to-understand content, aiming to educate and inspire readers by exploring the fascinating connection between health, science, and the human mind.