Pick Up the Pace to Protect Your Heart

There’s no doubt about it… one of the best things you can do for your heart is walking.

Walking strengthens your heart muscle, lowers blood pressure, and improves circulation—all critical factors for cardiovascular health

Most studies on the heart benefits of walking evaluate how many steps to take daily.

The scientific consensus is about 7,000.

But today, I want to talk about the heart impact of a different aspect of walking: your speed.

Researchers analyzed data on more than 80,000 people who gave information on their walking habits as part of the UK Biobank (a large database for research). They were then tracked for 13 years.

Over that time, about nine percent developed an irregular heartbeat or arrhythmia.

This occurs when the electrical signals that control the heart’s rhythm become disrupted, causing the heart to beat either too slowly or too fast.

A heart rhythm abnormality can increase your risk of heart failure, heart attack, and stroke.

After accounting for other factors, the researchers determined that walking speed has a significant link to your risk of developing an arrhythmia.

Compared to the slow walkers, people with an average walking pace had a 35 percent reduced risk.

And those folks who walked fast had a 43 percent reduced risk.

The researchers defined walking speeds as follows:

• Slow pace: under three miles per hour (mph).
• Average pace: three to four mph.
• Brisk pace: more than four mph.

They also determined that 36 percent of the connection between walking speed and heart rhythm issues was influenced by factors related to metabolism and inflammation. These include things like body fat levels, blood pressure, and inflammatory markers in the blood.

This adds more evidence to other research showing that the faster you walk, the lower your risk drops for metabolic factors like obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar.

If you have symptoms of an irregular heartbeat—palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain, or fatigue—be sure to see your doctor right away.

Lace up your shoes and pick up the pace to avoid this issue.

Any kind of movement is better than being sedentary. But the kind that gets your heart rate up is even better.

P.S. Try this muscle-building hack to live LONGER and BETTER!

View Sources

Qin P, Ho FK, Celis-Morales CA, et al., Association of self-reported and accelerometer-based walking pace with incident cardiac arrhythmias: a prospective cohort study using UK Biobank

Heart Published Online First: 15 April 2025. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2024-325004