Walking can also help prevent musculoskeletal pain – something which might seem counterintuitive.

Brain scans revealed that brisk walkers had larger, healthier hippocampi (the part of the brain involved in memory) and less white matter damage, meaning their brains were ageing better.

However, people who walked the most were 23 per cent less likely to develop chronic lower back pain than those who walked the least, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open last month.

The research monitored more than 11,000 adults (who all started out without back pain) for more than four years.

Crucially, the back-protecting benefit cam... See more

Sensors placed on their muscles showed why: even though the overall exercise time was the same, because the muscle fibres still contract for a while after stopping exercise, the muscles were spending longer periods of time literally sucking glucose out of the blood to feed them.

We've all been conditioned to believe that unless you're sweating and out of breath, exercise isn't helpful. But that's not what the latest evidence shows.

The evidence that even a small amount of walking can make a big difference was proven beyond doubt in a landmark study in 2023, where researchers at the University of Cambridge reviewed nearly 200 of the largest and best studies, monitoring more than 30 million adults, to answer a simple question: how little exercise can you do to see a benefit?

The... See more

Even more remarkably, these short bursts of exercise can do more for your metabolic health – everything from how well your body controls blood sugar, to how it processes fat, and even your risk of diabetes – than longer, more traditional workouts.

Basically, the better your insulin works, the lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and so on.

This was proven in a study by Zhejiang University in China, published last year in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.

Overweight office workers were put through two regimens: one day they stayed seated except for a single 30-minute walk, mid-shift. On the other day, they went for a brisk three-minute stroll – ten in total ... See more