Walking May Reduce Back Pain Risk, No Matter Your Speed
A new study found that 100 minutes a day of walking at any pace can slash the risk of lower back pain by 23 percent — and even shorter walks have benefits.
“The relationship was dose-dependent, meaning the more people walked, the lower their risk — up to about 100 minutes per day, after which the benefit leveled off,” says lead study author Rayane Haddadj, a doctoral candidate in the department of public health and nursing at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway.
Lower back pain is so common because the lumbar (lower) spine works hard to support the body: It provides stability for the rest of the spine, serving as the attachment point for muscles and ligaments that allow for walking, running, sitting, lifting, and moving in all directions. The lumbar spine also supports most of the body’s weight and functions as the center of the body’s balance.
In today’s world, sitting plays a big role in lower back pain, says Nick Shamie, MD, a professor and spine surgeon at the UCLA School of Medicine in Santa Monica, California, who was not involved in the trial.
“Chair designs are not the best, and a lot of people suffer from back pain because they’re behind their computer for hours and hours without the right support,” says Dr. Shamie.
“When you are seated, you’re loading your discs and your lumbar spine. When you’re standing upright or walking, it increases your core strength because those muscles have to engage. So walking and even standing will help avoid some of the problems with chronic wear and tear that happens in the lower back,” Shamie says.
The study, which used data from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) in Norway, followed about 11,000 adults who were 55 on average with no history of lower back pain.
At the start of the study, participants wore a device called an accelerometer for an average of six days to measure how much and how intensely they walked each day.
People were placed into one of four groups, depending on the number of minutes they walked each day:
The subjects were also placed into one of three groups depending on the intensity or effort they put into walking: slow, moderate, or brisk.
Researchers then followed all the participants for an average of four years, during which about 1,700 people developed back pain.
After adjusting the findings for factors like age, sex, income, depression, and smoking, a data analysis revealed the following:
This research may help motivate people, especially Americans who are typically walking much less than 10,000 steps, says Beth Darnall, PhD, a clinical pain psychologist and researcher at Stanford Health Care in California, who was not involved in the study. “Other studies have shown that walking improves overall health, and this study extends the benefits to back pain prevention,” she says.
“Walking 100 minutes (or more) might sound hard to fit into your day, but that actually translates into about 10,000 to 12,000 steps, which may seem more doable for some people,” says Shamie.
It may also help to channel your inner Norwegian.
“When you look at how people live in Norway, even though it gets very cold there certain months of the year, I think people probably walk more than [Americans] do as part of their daily routine — walking to work or the grocery store, for example,” says Shamie.
Unless they’re actively trying to exercise, most people in the United States don’t walk to work or the train station. “Nowadays, even in a walkable city, most people choose the comfort of Uber or Lyft,” he says.
Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be 100 continuous minutes — you can break it up throughout the day, says Shamie.
“You could walk 30 minutes to work or school and 30 minutes back, and then do another 40 minutes when you’re exercising,” he says.
Although 100 minutes of daily walking is a good goal, you don’t have to walk that much to strengthen your back and reduce your risk of lower back pain.
“The dose-dependent association suggests that even small increases in daily walking are associated with lowered risk of chronic low back pain,” says Haddadj.
Shamie agrees. “It’s not like you have to reach 100 minutes. That was the threshold for statistical significance in this study, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t see results for people who walked 60 or 70 minutes,” he says.
The findings suggest that when it comes to reducing the risk of lower back pain, how much you walk each day is more important than how fast you walk.
That’s an encouraging and important finding, because many people who already have lower back pain or who aren’t super fit may not be able to walk briskly, at least at first, says Shamie.
Although it wasn’t looked at in this study, Shamie believes that just standing more — even without walking — can help reduce the risk of lower back pain.
All three experts agree that a major upside of walking is that it’s accessible to most everyone — no fancy equipment required.
If you do want to go a step further, use a device that can help you monitor your daily walking time and steps, which is available on most smartphones, says Dr. Darnall.
“Walking 100 minutes per day is not feasible for everyone — certainly not every day — but interested people can set a goal to walk more each week,” she says.
To get in more steps, Darnall recommends:
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