Here's how long you should walk a day to avoid back problems
Who hasn't had back pain? Lower back pain, considered "the illness of the century," affects a majority of people. According to the French Health Insurance , "4 out of 5 people will suffer from common lower back pain during their lifetime, and more than half of the French population has had at least one episode of back pain in the last twelve months." Fortunately, it is possible to avoid back pain, and this mainly involves physical activity.
Being active helps prevent back pain, but also prevents it from becoming chronic. People who suffer from back pain often make the mistake of moving less, thinking they need to rest their backs. But on the contrary, "physical activity allows the back to move by stretching and strengthening the muscles, mobilizing the joints and preventing back pain from setting in. It prevents recurrent or chronic lower back pain," specifies the Health Insurance .
Among the most recommended physical activities for preventing and treating back pain: walking. However, be careful to wear suitable shoes, or you risk having the opposite effect! But how much walking should you do each day to reduce your risk of back pain? Norwegian researchers recently conducted a study to answer this question.
To do this, they measured (using wearable devices) the daily walking volume of 11,000 people aged 20 or older, who did or did not have chronic back pain. After two years of follow-up, they asked the participants if they had suffered from chronic back pain. The result: the more people walked, the lower their risk of chronic back pain.
In detail, those who walked more than 100 minutes (or 1 hour 40 minutes) per day had a 23% reduced risk compared to those who walked less. Of course, it's not necessarily easy to fit in such a long walk in everyday life. The goal is therefore to do as much as possible, and generally to limit sedentary behavior as much as possible. This applies to back pain, but also obviously to general health!
L'Internaute
