Taking A Walk Every Day May Keep Lower Back Pain Away

New research suggests total combined walking time of 100 minutes daily can reduce the risk of chronic lower back issues by 23 percent.

TRONDHEIM, Norway — Anyone who has ever struggled with chronic back pain knows how it can limit daily activities like bending over to tie shoes or lifting groceries. Back pain is the most common type of chronic pain in the United States, accounting for billions in healthcare spending. New research from Norway shows a strong link between daily walking and reduced risk of developing chronic low back pain, suggesting that regular walking may offer meaningful protection against this widespread condition.

A major study tracking more than 11,000 adults for over four years found that people who walked about 100 minutes daily showed a 23% lower risk of developing chronic back pain compared to those who walked less than 78 minutes per day. Published in JAMA Network Open, the paper concludes that “walking volume may have a more pronounced benefit than walking intensity.”

How Scientists Tracked Real Walking Habits

Norwegian researchers wanted to measure walking more accurately than ever before. Instead of asking people to guess how much they walked (which most people get wrong), scientists attached small motion-sensing devices to volunteers’ thigh and lower back. Think of these devices as super-smart pedometers that could tell the difference between walking, sitting, standing, and lying down.

The devices were designed to be worn for a full week, though most people ended up wearing them for about six days on average. Computer programs analyzed the data every five seconds, creating an incredibly detailed picture of each person’s daily movement patterns. The system could even tell how fast people were walking by measuring the energy their bodies used during different walking speeds.

The study included 11,194 adults with an average age of 55, and about 59% were women. Most importantly, none of these people had chronic back pain when the study began. Researchers only included people who had at least one full day of good data from their devices.

After following these people for over four years, 1,659 participants (nearly 15%) developed chronic low back pain. Scientists defined this as pain lasting at least three months during the past year, based on a standard questionnaire used in medical research.

Walking Time Matters More Than Walking Speed

The results revealed clear patterns that might surprise fitness enthusiasts. Researchers divided participants into four groups based on how much they walked each day. Compared to people who walked less than 78 minutes daily (the least active group):

• Those walking 78-100 minutes daily had 13% lower risk of back pain
• Those walking 101-124 minutes daily had 23% lower risk
• Those walking 125+ minutes daily had 24% lower risk

Walking speed also seemed to help, but not as much as walking time. People who walked at moderate speeds had about 15-18% lower risk compared to the slowest walkers. But here’s where it gets interesting: when scientists looked at both walking time and speed together, the speed benefits mostly disappeared while the time benefits remained strong.

The speed findings revealed something unexpected. The benefits of walking faster peaked at a moderate pace (roughly the speed of a brisk but comfortable walk), and then slightly decreased at very fast walking speeds. This suggests that you don’t need to power-walk or race-walk to get the back protection benefits.

The sweet spot appeared to be around 100 minutes of daily walking (about one hour and 40 minutes). Beyond that amount, people got some additional protection, but the benefits didn’t keep increasing dramatically.

Why Walking Might Work for Most People

Unlike intense workout programs that can feel intimidating or require special equipment, walking is accessible to most healthy adults. The magic number of 100 minutes might sound like a lot, but it can be broken into smaller chunks throughout the day.

Consider this realistic breakdown: a 20-minute walk to work or the store, a 30-minute lunchtime stroll, and a 50-minute evening walk around the neighborhood. For people who work from home, this might mean taking walking meetings, parking farther away from destinations, or walking to run errands instead of driving short distances.

Scientists made sure their results weren’t skewed by other factors that might affect back pain. They accounted for differences in age, gender, education level, income, employment status, smoking habits, and depression. The walking benefits held steady across all these different groups, though the protection seemed even stronger in people 65 and older.

What Was the Study Population and How Was It Conducted?

This research used data from a large health study in Norway that has been following residents for decades. Starting in 2017-2019, researchers invited everyone aged 20 and older in a Norwegian region to participate. Out of nearly 104,000 people invited, about 56,000 agreed to join and completed health exams and lifestyle questionnaires.

A few years later, during 2021-2023, researchers contacted these participants again to see who had developed back pain. About 33,000 people responded to this follow-up survey. After removing people with incomplete data or those who already had back pain at the start, researchers ended up with their final group of 11,194 people to study.

About 31,000 people initially agreed to wear the motion-sensing devices. After ensuring the data quality was good enough for analysis, 27,000 people had usable walking measurements. The final study group represented those with complete information on all the factors researchers wanted to examine.

People who walked the most tended to be different from those who walked the least in some predictable ways. The most active walkers were more likely to have jobs (76% vs 53%), higher education levels, and higher incomes. They were also less likely to smoke (5% vs 9%) and less likely to report feeling depressed (8% vs 13%).

What Do Previous Studies Say About Walking and Back Pain?

Earlier studies have shown that walking programs can help prevent back pain from coming back in people who’ve already had episodes. Other research has found that various types of exercise can help prevent back pain in people who haven’t had it before, but none of those studies specifically looked at walking.

Some previous studies that asked people to report their own physical activity levels have had mixed results about whether exercise prevents back pain. The Norwegian researchers say their study is the first large, long-term investigation to use precise movement measurements rather than relying on people’s often-inaccurate estimates of their own activity levels.

Limitations and Long-Term Takeaways

Several important factors limit how broadly these results might apply to other people. Researchers only measured walking habits once, at the beginning of the study, so they don’t know if people’s walking patterns changed over the four years they were followed. Since this was an observational study, scientists can’t prove that walking directly prevents back pain; they can only show that the two things are connected.

The study participants were mostly Norwegian, well-educated, and financially comfortable, so the results might not apply equally to people from different backgrounds. People reported their own back pain rather than having it diagnosed by doctors, which could lead to some inaccuracies.

When researchers looked only at the healthiest people at the start of the study, some of the walking benefits became smaller. This suggests that part of the apparent protection might come from healthier people naturally walking more, rather than walking directly preventing back pain.

Despite these limitations, the study has major strengths: it followed a large group of people for several years, used precise movement measurements, and carefully accounted for many other factors that might influence back pain risk.

The researchers believe their results likely apply to people in other wealthy countries, since Norway’s physical activity levels are similar to those in places like the United States.

For Americans concerned about back pain, this research suggests walking may be worth considering as a simple, accessible approach. At roughly 100 minutes per day, the target requires commitment but appears achievable for many people through small changes to daily routines. The study provides evidence that encouraging more walking through public health efforts might help reduce the widespread problem of chronic back pain without expensive treatments or specialized equipment.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or exercise program. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read here.