Need another reason to get your steps in? According to new research, the more you walk (and the faster you walk), the lower your risk of chronic low back pain.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that people who walked between 101 and 124 minutes every day had a 23% reduction in chronic low back pain (CLBP) risk as compared to those who walked less than 78 minutes per day. Walking at a moderate or brisk pace was also linked with a lower chance of CLBP. However, the risk reduction from walking intensity wasn’t as pronounced as it was with time spent walking.

CLBP—usually defined as pain lasting for at least three consecutive months—is quite common in the U.S., affecting an estimated 28% of adults. Globally, we may see as many as 843 million cases of low back pain by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. “This is an important finding because walking is a simple, low-cost, and accessible activity that can be promoted widely to reduce the burden of low back pain,” study author Rayane Haddadj, MS, a PhD candidate in the department of public health and nursing at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, told Health. This study included 11,194 adults living in Norway who were 55 years old on average. When the study started, none of the participants had CLBP.

Participants wore accelerometers to track their movement and walking intensity for a week, which provided “more robust and detailed data on walking behavior than self-reported questionnaires,” Haddadj explained. Researchers gathered that walking data from 2017 to 2019, and then followed up from 2021 to 2023 to ask participants whether they experienced any chronic “pain or stiffness” in their low back.

Essentially, “they’re looking at the association between walking and staying free of chronic low back pain,” Will Haas, MD, MBA, integrative medicine and family medicine physician and founder of VYVE Wellness, told Health. Walking less than 78 minutes per day was considered the baseline risk for CLBP. From there, the researchers found that: Walking between 78 and 100 minutes per day was linked to a 13% lower CLBP risk. Walking between 101 and 124 minutes per day was linked to a 23% lower CLBP risk. Walking over 125 minutes per day was linked to a 24% lower CLBP risk.

Haddadj and his team also found that walking with a moderate or brisk intensity—at least 2.8 miles per hour or 4.1 kilometers per hour—reduced CLBP risk by as much as 18%.