People build walks into their daily routines for all kinds of reasons—one person’s commute may be another’s free form of stress relief. Whatever the reason you walk, you’re doing your well-being a favor when you do. This accessible form of physical activity can have powerful effects on your mental and physical health, even at distances well below the ubiquitous 10,000 steps-per-day benchmark.
Here’s what a 20-minute daily walk can do for your mood and heart health.
To understand why walking is good for your mood, just imagine going out for a stroll “in the sunshine, in nature, in the springtime,” said Paul Kelly, PhD, a researcher with the University of Edinburgh’s Physical Activity for Health Research Centre. “You say that, and people start smiling.”
There’s real science to back up that emotional reaction, too. Lots of studies suggest that walking can boost your mental health—and that being sedentary can put it at risk. For example, research has found that walks can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. People who get at least 5,000 steps per day tend to have fewer depressive symptoms than those who walk less, according to a 2024 research review based on 33 previously published studies.
It would probably take a bit longer than 20 minutes to walk 5,000 steps—around double that, for most people moving at an average walking pace—but shorter walks are still good for your psyche. A small 2022 study found that people’s moods improved and stress decreased after taking a 20- to 30-minute walk in an urban park. (Walking in green space seemed to be better for mental health than walking in urban “gray” space, the researchers found.)
What is it that makes moving good for the mind? There are lots of potential reasons, according to Kelly’s research. One is that physical activity, including walking, can trigger the release of mood-boosting endorphins. Research suggests that staying active may even help preserve the brain’s gray matter volume, an important element of cognitive health.
A daily walk may also have equally important indirect effects, Kelly told Health. To name a few: A 20-minute stroll may get you into nature, give you time to connect with a friend, improve your sleep, boost self-esteem, or provide a distraction from a stressful situation—all of which may be good for your mood and mental health, Kelly said.
“Walking is such a natural thing to do,” Kelly added. “It makes sense to me that there would be positive effects of doing this thing that is so fundamental.”
When it comes to heart health, “the benefits of physical activity are multifactorial and numerous,” said Carl Lavie, MD, a cardiologist at Ochsner Health in Louisiana. Exercise can improve blood pressure, heart rate variability, endothelial function, insulin resistance, and many other factors related to cardiovascular health, his research shows.
And you don’t need a marathon workout to get your systems firing. Compared to being sedentary, just 15 minutes of activity per day is enough to translate to significant health and longevity benefits, found one 2011 study. (Although the more you move, the more your health stands to gain, the researchers concluded.)
When it comes to walking, specifically, a 2023 study concluded that getting as few as 2,800 steps per day helps keep the heart healthy. That’s “much less than the frequently used dogma of 10,000 steps per day,” Lavie noted, and a number that many people could hit in a single walk of 20 minutes or a bit longer.
For what it’s worth, that single walk of 15 minutes or more may be better for your heart than getting the same number of steps during lots of shorter walks throughout the day, according to a 2025 study. The researchers said to aim for at least 10 to 15 minutes per stroll to maximize cardiovascular effects.
If you’re trying to boost cardiovascular health, “higher-intensity exercise, or even faster walking, is better” than a slow amble, Lavie told Health. If you can, he said, it’s ideal to walk for around 30 minutes most days, incorporating faster bursts of movement when you can.
But if that’s not realistic, don’t sweat it. Every single step helps your mind and body alike.
Adding a 20-minute walk to your daily schedule is an achievement worth celebrating, particularly if you’re building an activity routine from scratch, Kelly told Health. “Twenty minutes,” he said, can be “an absolute game-changer.”
