Walking and Lower Back Pain

At some point, most of us experience lower back pain. Many people use walking as their mode of exercise—could walking contribute to the development of lower back pain? A recent study examined the rate of lower back pain and walking.

Researchers tracked over 11,000 participants in the Norwegian HUNT study. To qualify, the subjects could not have had any back pain prior to being included in the study. The initial testing period included wearing an accelerometer during each test period as well as a questionnaire related to lower back pain. The tests were repeated and the subjects were tracked for just over four years, and 1,659 subjects developed lower back pain.

The subjects were grouped into quartiles by number of minutes walked per day for the analysis, and there was an inverse relationship between the risk of lower back pain and both walking intensity and minutes walked. Simply stated, the more a person walked, the lower the rate of lower back pain. The more energy expended by walking faster, the risk of back pain was lower.

The lesson for people 20 and older? If you don’t have any orthopedic obstacles, the more time spent walking as well as the higher the speed of the walking, the lower your risk of developing lower back pain. Just like the vegetable and fruit challenge, which I hope got more people to eat more plant products, walking 30–45 minutes per day most days a week can get you fitter as well as reduce the risk of back pain. The path to better health may just be a simple walk a day, and the great thing is that it’s a multigenerational activity. Walking as a family sets an example for the kids that exercise is something everybody does, and you’ll be setting them up for a healthier life.

If you’re new to walking, remember the talk test. If you have to take deeper breaths but can still carry on a conversation, that’s just about right. If you’re sucking wind so much that you’re gasping for air, that’s too much exertion for beginners. However, if you can sing, that’s not hard enough.

What are you prepared to do today?