Want to Look Younger Instantly? Walk Faster – Here’s Why It Works

Think walking slower keeps you safer as you age? That belief may be aging you - literally!

In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey Guild, a specialist in balance and mobility for adults 70+, breaks down why walking faster may be the single most overlooked key to looking younger, walking better, and reducing your fall risk. Counterintuitive? Yes. Backed by science? Absolutely.

What You’ll Discover in This Episode:
Why walking slower might increase your fall risk, and how your brain plays a role
The two gait metrics most correlated with aging and instability, and how walking speed changes both
How fast walking improves balance automatically even if you’ve been told to “be careful”
The surprising link between walking speed, confidence, and how youthful you appear to others
What to do if walking faster isn’t working when to look for deeper physical causes (like hip weakness or Parkinson’s)
Walk into every room with more strength, youth, and presence without adding any new exercise routines.
Whether you're noticing a slower gait or want to stay ahead of balance problems, this is actionable insight for real transformation.

Watch the full episode and try this one simple tip.
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This one tip can help you look younger, just by changing the way you move and
improve your balance all at the same time. I'm Doctor Jeffrey Guild, physical therapist, and
we work with people every day from ages 70 to 95 to help them improve their balance and
independence with their mobility. So if you're having problems with walking with your balance
and looking older as you're chronologically getting older, this episode is for you. So a way to
look younger is by walking better and moving better. That's one way to do it. And so there's a
very tactical, easy way to do this. And it's often counterintuitive because it's not usually what
people think. And the tip is to walk faster. I'll say that again. If you want to improve your
balance and if you want to look younger as you are walking, simply walk faster. And this often
seems counterintuitive to to people because a lot of people think that they need to be more
careful. As they get older, as their balance gets worse, they need to be more careful if they are
above a certain age. And so they should actually walk slower. And there's a number of
mechanical reasons why this is not the case as well as psychological reasons. And we'll go
over those. So one very simple reason why you should walk faster, of course, is the
psychological, the confidence as we walk slower, say, if we're over the age of 70 or so, then it
feeds into this problem of confidence. If we are afraid of falling, then we are automatically at
higher risk for falls. That's one thing. And this transitions over to how we look when we're
walking around. So when we are with our friends, when we're with our family, how youthful we
look as we walk around. If we are wanting to appear young, then it is important that we also
walk in a way that is youthful, and the speed at which we walk is also very important. And yes,
as we walk faster improves our balance because of the psychological. That's one reason. Now,
the main mechanical reason why walking faster actually improves our balance is because of a
the most highly correlated gait attribute to fall risk is called gait variability. I'm going to restate
this. So basically if the most highly correlated gait parameter or the most highly correlated part
of our walking, when this is looked at in the evidence that is highly correlated with fall risk is
when people's gait variability is very high, meaning one step is not like another. So if one step
is not like another, then you are at higher risk for falls. Now the best way to reduce this
problem is by actually walking faster, because it is very difficult to get someone to train them to
say, okay, have one step like another. We can't really train this very well, but if we simply have
people walk faster, if we increase what we call their gait velocity, we just simply have them
walk faster. Then usually what will happen is one step will be like another. Then their gait
variability decreases and then their risk for falls decreases and their balance improves. This is
one thing and this is one reason. This is a very pure mechanical reason why if you walk faster,
if you're over 70, your balance will actually improve and then you will look younger as you
walk. But there's more to it than this. Another very highly correlated gait Gate parameter with
fall risk is called double support time, and this is when someone stands with both feet on the
ground when they are walking. This is actually a very unsteady, unstable position for people
and it's very difficult to maintain. So when people spend more of their time, when they walk
with both feet on the ground, which is called double support time, then their risk for falls
increases, their balance is worse, and they will look older as they walk. The best way to get rid
of this double support time problem is by increasing the speed at which we walk. So if we walk
faster, then we will spend less of our time in that double support time position. We'll spend less
of our time with both feet on the ground. We don't want both feet on the ground when we're
walking as as far as how much of our gait cycle, our gait pattern. Are we spending with both
feet on the ground? We want to actually be just going fluidly through the gait cycle from one
part of the walking pattern to the next. And I'm getting into all this to get into the weeds a little
bit. On the science behind why people should be walking faster because frankly, people have a
problem with this concept. They often don't believe us when we tell them if you walk faster,
your balance will be better. And then, of course, what you really care about is if you walk faster,
you will look more youthful. You will appear more confident. You will look better when you walk
into a room. You will get more compliments from your peers, from your children. You will.
People will tell you how good you look when you are walking better, more confidently. Another
simple reason why walking faster reduces Uses your fall risk is because the second most
highly correlated gate attribute to fall risk is gate velocity itself. Number one is gate variability,
which is solved by walking faster. Now there can be some other things that can contribute to
that problem that are more specific and individualized. A lot of people can improve their gate
variability simply by having them walk faster. The two most highly correlated gate parameters
with fall risk and poor balance is how fast you walk by itself, and then how fast you walk
actually improves the first gate parameter that's highly correlated with falls and poor balance.
Another one is double support time, which is both feet on the ground, which is also solved by
increasing how fast you walk. Now let's say you try to increase walking speed and it doesn't
happen. There can be a number of specific Reasons why someone is having problems with
their balance and with their walking pattern. This goes down to do they have a hip weakness
on one side that's causing them to shuffle? Do they have an unknown or known diagnosis of
Parkinson's disease? Do they have tightness in their inner thigh that's pulling their legs inward
and causing the feet to trip on each other? Do they have a lot of tightness in the back of their
leg and weakness in the front of their leg that's causing their knees to be bent as they walk?
Do they have an endurance problem that makes their walking get worse, and their walking to
slow down because their endurance is simply not very good? These are all other things to take
into consideration. In the meantime, we can solve a lot of their problems. Empower people to
walk more youthfully look younger, look less old, reduce fall risk and improve balance simply
by having them walk faster. Now, is there a point where you can walk too fast? And the answer
is yes. Now, usually we don't take people who are struggling to walk faster, and then we get
them to walk faster. And then they do and they overshoot. You don't need to worry about that.
You don't need to worry about really overshooting usually, especially if you're struggling to walk
faster in the first place. Usually when people walk too fast when they're older, and then that
does actually increase their fall risk. But what happens there is usually they have a prior
personality or a stroke, head injury or something that leads to impulsive behaviors. A prior
personality trait that is more impulsive, a injury to the head of some sort of stroke or a head
injury, or something that makes them make decisions that are more just impulsive and not as
thoughtful about risk. Now, this also does have its advantages. Because a lot of the times, the
people who have a prior personality of being risk takers, who aren't so worried about their
balance or afraid of falls, they don't develop this fear of falling. Oftentimes, like their peers
might. And so their peers might struggle with an increase in fall risk because of the fear of
falling by itself, or the fear of falling on top of all the other things that are wrong with their
physical abilities. But the people with prior impulsive or risk taking personalities, and
sometimes we'll find this with certain career choices that people make. But that's a whole
nother story. The person who is not on a regular basis worried about their fall risk or not,
always worried about a fear of falling or not always worried about falling. There. Actually, that
helps reduce their fall risk. At least that part of it. So then our job is to get them to slow down.
But that's a very small percentage of the population. And again it's not oh it's not taking people
who are walking too slow and then overshooting and then they walk too fast. That's not the
problem is already people who tend to walk fast as it is. And that is just a part of their
personality. And they will never change. They will be that way until they are 96, 97 years old
and then they die. And I know this because I see this all the time. And this is these are the
patterns we tend to see with people. I mean, people are absolutely fascinating. And even down
to their walking pattern, people are absolutely, absolutely fascinating. So can you walk too
fast? Yes. Is it an overshooting shooting problem? Very unlikely. So you don't need to worry
about that as much now. Don't take this on all by yourself, but if you're in the early stages of
this problem, these are things you can start to do now. Simply start walking faster. If you are
actually at risk for falls and you're concerned about this. Go get evaluated by a physical
therapist, preferably a physical therapist who specializes in balance disorders or neurological
disorders. Those would be the specialists to help you out. These are some of the very specific
details that we know from the evidence as to walking slower puts people at increased fall risk
and why? If you walk faster, your balance tends to actually be better and you reduce your fall
risk. If you walk faster, you will look more youthful. If you like this information, subscribe to our
channel. Send this to someone that you care about and we'll see you on the next one.