No doubt you’re well aware of the many health benefits obtained from a daily walk, though with this summer’s heat, you need to also be aware of understanding your walking limits during hot and muggy weather, along with the need to limit sun exposure during peak daytime hours. Fortunately, a good outdoor walk during the early morning or early evening hours can likely solve that problem (along with satisfying the advice of taking a walk after a meal). Just being outdoors for a walk provides health benefits, and walking also leads to such positive health results as reducing your blood pressure and even lowering your cholesterol. And now there’s new evidence for some additional health benefits from a regular daily walk. First, publishing their results in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers from the University of Oxford have new evidence that the more steps you walk each day, the lower your risk of being diagnosed with up to 13 different types of cancer. This study of more than 85,000 people reports an association between walking at least 5000 steps a day and a reduction of risk for such cancers as liver, lung, kidney, colon, and breast cancer. Furthermore, the more steps you walk a day (up to about 9000 steps), the lower your risk. So put on your FitBit and start clicking here.

Another recent study conducted in Norway and published in JAMA Open Network found that daily walking also appears to reduce your risk of lower back pain. According to these researchers, the longer or harder you walk each day, the lower your risk of such back pain, which is the most common type of chronic pain among US adults. In the study, those who walked 78-100 minutes a day lowered their risk of lower back pain by 13% compared to those who walked less, while those who walked more than 100 minutes a day reduced their odds of lower back pain by 23%. The more intense the walking, the greater the reduction of risk. While more research needs to be done to better understand these results, this just adds to the incentive to put on your sneakers and start your stroll. You can read more about this research here. And if you want to up your steps but are not ready to leave the house, you can always start an indoor walk by watching one of the terrific walking routines from the ladies of Yes2Next. Or take a look at some of the walking “hacks” offered by sports scientist Dr. Elroy Aguiar to up the health benefits of your next walk.

One particular walking strategy has recently become a viral hit online, though the science (developed by Japanese researchers) to support it is nearly two decades old. Known as “Interval Walking Training” or “Japanese Walking,” this walking pattern involves interspersing high-intensity brisk walking (almost to the edge of a jog) for 3 minutes with slower, 3-minute intervals, back and forth, for 30 minutes. As one expert makes clear, “By simply alternating between short periods of brisk walking and slower-paced recovery, we engage the cardiovascular system in a much more dynamic way.” While experts suggest you start slow with this method (perhaps checking in with your physician) and gradually increase the brisk intervals until you are fully capable of going for 3 minutes at a time, the end result will likely be a big boost to your aerobic capacity, along with increased muscle strength and lower systolic blood pressure. You won’t necessarily get in all your daily steps this way, but you will give yourself quite a workout. To find out more about this walking approach, start the clock and click here. And for a brief video demonstrating the technique, take a look here.