Walking 5,000 steps for three days can increase your life expectancy

Time to get your walking shoes on

According to research by Vitality and the London School of Economics, this level of activity can increase your life expectancy.

The team behind the research analysed data from one million people in the UK and South Africa over ten years.

The researchers explained that those who increase how often they walk can boost their life expectancy by years.

Men who adopt this new activity could add 2.5 years to their life. Women could add three years to their lives by walking 5,000 steps three days a week.

This challenge seems a lot more possible than the 10,000-step challenge we've often been encouraged to do.

Professor Joan Costa-Font of the London School of Economics explained:

"Successful habit-based interventions can lengthen life expectancy, entail considerable savings for public health services, improve productivity, and help address the significant long-term challenges posed by mental health, social isolation, and non-communicable diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes."

Not only does walking have a positive impact on your physical health, but it also has an incredible impact on your mental wellbeing.

As someone who has swapped the bus for walking when heading home from work, I feel ten times better when it comes to my mental health.

Walking helps clear my head, lowers my stress levels, and improves my mood.

Now all we need is for it to stop raining every five minutes so we can walk without looking like drowned rats.