My guilty pleasure is Quora, which I dip into if a question intrigues me. Sometimes I “archive” the more interesting topics here.
“Is walking speed an indicator of health?“
Walking speed is an indicator of health to some extent, but it’s not a straight linear relationship. For example, race walkers are generally in good health because they are trained athletes, not because their walking speed is fast. The health indicator aspect comes in at ordinary walking speeds.
When investigators studying aging say that speed at normal walking gait among people over 45 years old is a critical measure that predicts health or even longevity, they are talking about walking speeds on the order of 3 miles an hour. Being unable to sustain walking speeds above half that pace is a good predictor of worse health outcomes (which probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone). Walking speeds do fall off at advanced age, so the fact that a 70-year-old is not walking as fast as they did when they were 30 is not necessarily cause for concern.
Walking speed is a well-studied measure, and there is even a simple test, called the 6-Minute Walk Test, used by clinicians to assess patients with serious cardiovascular and lung conditions and to monitor their progress. Investigators are also finding associations between slower walking speeds and other conditions.
So the idea is not that you should train your walking speed to reach some benchmark, but more that walking speed at one’s normal gait is an easily measured and reliable indicator of basic aerobic conditioning, which is an important dimension of health (and “walking independence,” which is an important dimension of healthy aging).
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-procedures-and-tests/six-minute-walk-test