1 minute of walking . . .
A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that walking between one and 29 minutes a day to or from work lowered stroke risk by eight per cent compared with non-walkers.
10 minutes . . .
Taking four brisk 10-minute walks a day lowers your blood pressure enough to significantly reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke, reports Indiana State University.
15 minutes . . .
Step up to power-walk pace (140 steps per minute) and you’ll burn over 400kJ every 15 minutes. That’s a stubbie of light beer erased from your gut records.
20 minutes . . .
Twenty minutes of walking a day means lower stress levels, according to the Annals of Behavioural Medicine. This is caused by the effect of active distraction and the release of feel-good endorphins.
35 minutes . . .
Studies on people diagnosed with anxiety published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found walking for 30 minutes at power-walk pace followed by a five-minute rest reduced the effects of mental tension on the body by two-thirds.
45 minutes . . .
People who take daily 45-minute strolls are able to kick colds 50 per cent faster than non-strollers due to walking boosting production of germ-killing cells, found Appalachian State University.
90 minutes . . .
An hour and a half at a constant 6km/h pace burns approximately 2340kJ for the average male. That’ll cancel out your lunchtime ham and cheese sandwich.
3 hours . . .
It’ll be tough to convince your boss to let you take a three-hour stroll. But clocking up 180 minutes over a full week will have huge benefits – you’ll slash your risk of a heart attack by an artery-widening 40 per cent, according to a 20-year Harvard study.
5 hours . . .
Three hundred minutes of walking a week will see you burn 3.2kg over a year. A study from the University of New South Wales found dog owners complete, on average, 300 minutes a week, where as the pooch-less manage just half that.
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