Jul 17, 2025 08:00:00

How much should you walk each day to prevent chronic back pain?

Back pain is a problem that affects people all over the world, and some people go to chiropractors or buy expensive chairs to deal with it, but in recent years,

'walking' has been attracting attention as a way to improve back pain. A new study conducted in Norway has also highlighted the importance of walking as a way to deal with back pain.

Volume and Intensity of Walking and Risk of Chronic Low Back Pain | Public Health | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2835297

Study Reveals How Long We Need to Walk to Prevent Chronic Back Pain : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/study-reveals-how-long-we-need-to-walk-to-prevent-chronic-back-pain

Guidelines for improving chronic back pain generally recommend 'maintaining physical activity.' However, there are no clear recommendations on the amount of physical activity needed to prevent chronic back pain.

A research team led by Rayane Haddadj , a doctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology , used data from the Trøndelag Health Study , a study of adults living in Trøndelag , Norway, to analyze the relationship between walking time and intensity and chronic low back pain.

The analysis used data from 11,194 participants who participated in the 4th Trøndelag Health Study, conducted between 2017 and 2019, who are taking part in the follow-up study between 2021 and 2023, who provided pain data and valid accelerometer data, and who were free of chronic low back pain at the time of the initial survey.

The participants were asked to wear accelerometers on their right thighs and hips for a week to measure how long and intensely they walked each day. They were also asked to answer a questionnaire to assess their back pain, and if their back pain lasted for three months, they were deemed to have 'chronic back pain.'

The analysis showed that people who walked an average of 78-100 minutes per day had a 13% lower risk of developing chronic low back pain compared to those who walked less than 78 minutes per day. Furthermore, subjects who walked more than 100 minutes per day had a 23% lower risk of developing chronic low back pain than those who walked less than 78 minutes per day.

Walking intensity was also associated with a reduced risk of developing chronic low back pain, but the association was smaller than that of walking duration.

'Our findings indicate that the amount of walking per day is more important than the intensity of walking in reducing the risk of chronic low back pain. These results suggest that policies and public health strategies to promote walking may be useful in reducing the incidence of chronic low back pain,' the research team wrote in their paper.