Your walking speed could tell you how fast you think

We all have different base walking speeds. If you’re not in a rush to get somewhere and you can walk at whatever pace feels comfortable to you, do you find yourself still racing ahead and overtaking those around you? Or do you like to take things slow and meander your way down the street?

According to one neuroscientist, the speed at which you like to walk could tell you some important things about the rest of your body, including how your brain processes information – and it’s good news for people who walk quickly.

If you often find yourself groaning in frustration at being stuck behind someone walking slower than you while you head to the shops, or you’re always crossing the road to avoid having to awkwardly ask to overtake a couple that are taking up the entire pavement, then you are probably a fast walker.

In a social media post shared by neuroscientist Kyle Cox, walking faster than those around you could mean that you have a “higher baseline pace” – meaning you think faster and process information faster than your peers.

Sharing a video on Instagram, Kyle – who runs social media channels dedicated to “rewiring trauma through neuroscience” – cited research that showed that natural walking speed can correlate to processing speed and decision velocity.

He shared: “If you walk faster than everyone around you, get stuck behind slow walkers constantly, and feel genuine frustration over people who meander, then your baseline operating pace exceeds the population average across multiple domains.

“Researchers studying gait and cognition found that natural walking speed correlates with processing speed, decision velocity, and overall life pace. Fast walkers think faster, decide faster, and operate at high RPMs across the board.

“Your frustration with slow walkers isn’t impatience, it’s a speed mismatch. You’re operating at one tempo and being forced to move at another. The feeling is like driving behind someone going 25 in a 50mph zone.”

Kyle went on to state that people who walk slowly often operate at a slower baseline in other areas, too. He said that slow walkers often don’t move slowly because they’re relaxing or taking things easy, but instead they’re simply moving at their “native operating speed”.

The neuroscientist insisted that “neither is better”, and it doesn’t mean that fast walkers are smarter, or that slow walkers are less intelligent. It simply correlates to how fast you think, not the quality of those thoughts.

He added: “Neither is better, but mixing them creates friction. The fast walking habit often comes with other speed preferences [such as] faster talking, faster reading, faster eating, faster everything. Your system is calibrated to a tempo that most environments aren’t designed for.”

How to calculate your walking speed

The walking speed test is used to assess someone’s functional capacity, including their ability to perform daily tasks around the house and maintain independence. To perform the walking speed test, you need a stopwatch and a tape measure. It’s easiest to do this outside where you have plenty of space, as you’ll need to measure out 15 metres.

First, measure five metres, which is the distance you’ll walk to get up to your normal walking speed. Then, measure 10 metres, which is the distance you’ll actually walk while being timed. To work out your walking speed, simply divide 10 metres by the number of seconds it took you to walk that distance.

The average walking speed you need to measure yourself against will depend on your sex and your age. For women in their 40s, the average is 1.39 metres per second, while for a man of the same age, it is 1.43 m/s, according to the BBC.

If you’re in your 50s, you should be aiming for 1.31 m/s for a woman, while men should still maintain 1.43 m/s. Men should still be walking at 1.43 m/s in their 60s, too, while women will drop to an average of 1.24 m/s.