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

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.

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... See more

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

The science is clear, and it's high time we started shouting about it – rather than criticising patients for not being able to complete the recommended exercise guidance.

In one of the most striking new studies on this, researchers from the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences at Manipal College of Health Professions in India put 28 healthy young adults through two experiments: they were asked to sit for two hours after lunch (a set-up that probably sounds familiar to anyone with a desk job).

However, on one... See more

You may not see or feel it, but one of the most important changes is the way these short bursts of activity increase your insulin sensitivity – your body's ability to use insulin to keep your blood sugar under control.

As part of the UK Biobank project (a huge database of British participants' health information and samples), a study published earlier this year, where people were asked how fast they usually walked, found that those who walked at a steady to brisk pace (above 3mph) were about half as likely to develop dementia as those who walked more slowly.