A fitness routine developed by Japanese researchers in 2007 has recently found fresh legs on TikTok, where it’s being promoted as an enjoyable, low-barrier, and high-impact way to improve cardiovascular health, strength, and endurance.
Known as "Japanese walking," the method is incredibly simple: alternating three minutes of fast-paced walking with three minutes at a slower pace, repeated over 30 minutes.
It was first introduced in a 2007 study led by Hiroshi Nose and Shizue Masuki, professors at Shinshu University. Researchers randomly assigned 246 older adults into three groups: no walking, moderate-intensity continuous walking, and high-intensity interval walking.
The results were eye-opening. People who followed the interval walking program for five months experienced greater increases in leg strength and overall physical fitness, as well as a greater reduction in blood pressure, compared to those who only walked at a moderate pace.
Additional research has expanded on the original 2007 findings. A follow-up study involving more than 700 participants found that interval walking also improved symptoms of age and lifestyle-related conditions, including changes in cognitive function, depression, and sleep quality.
Now, nearly two decades later, the method is seeing renewed attention on social media, particular under the #FitTok category on TikTok.
What exactly does Japanese walking do to our bodies?
This type of interval walking taps into the "overload principle" – a key concept in exercise physiology where short bursts of exertion challenge the body just enough to force it to adapt.
“One’s fitness and health is affected by both how healthy the muscles are in terms of their metabolism and how well your heart and lungs and circulation work," John Buckley, a professor of exercise physiology at Keele University in the United Kingdom, told Euronews Health.
“To get those organs to adapt, we have to push them," he added. "By inducing these little zaps of hard exercise, we are pushing the muscles and the heart and lungs into a region where they then have to adapt a bit more".
This mirrors evolutionary patterns of movement. Humans are built for intermittent bursts of high effort – such as hunting and escaping danger – interspersed with prolonged, lower-intensity activity.
The health benefits of Japanese walking
By helping people get more high-intensity activity, Japanese walking could help with key health issues related to exercise and nutrition, including diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, Buckley said.
The method could help target these conditions by improving insulin sensitivity, reducing blood pressure, and boosting post exercise energy expenditure.
“Even modest amounts of activity can bring our blood glucose down and can bring our blood pressure down,” Buckley said.
“Those two things are probably the long term things that have the biggest effect on people's heart and people's circulation to their brain to prevent them from having a stroke".
Mental focus and psychological benefits
While the physical effects of Japanese walking are well-documented, Buckley also sees a potential boost to mental health in the method.
“Physical activity, if you look at the evidence, has as strong a benefit,” he said.
He said the focus required during high-intensity intervals may even create a mindfulness effect.
“If you have to up the intensity, then your mind has to be focused on that activity at the time," he said.
This is backed by a recent review which found that High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety, particularly in individuals with lower baseline anxiety.
The method is also incredibly flexible and can be easily applied to other types of exercise such as cycling, swimming, or even resistance training.
So yes, TikTok might have actually stumbled on a fitness trend that’s well worth the hype.
