David Halen Araújo Pinheiro has a simple prescription for people struggling with asthma: just walk more. In a new study from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, he and his colleagues found that simply increasing your daily steps can manage moderate to severe asthma just as well as formal, supervised aerobic training in a gym.
The finding, published in the journal Pulmonology, is welcome news for the roughly 480 patients who were invited to take part. Of those, 52 signed up and finished the program. Each volunteer had uncontrolled moderate to severe asthma, was physically inactive, and had been on medical treatment for at least six months. Most were overweight or grade one obese women between 18 and 65, dealing with anxiety, depression, and a low quality of life.
Before anything began, everyone attended an in-person class covering how asthma works, how to use their medication properly, and why movement helps. Then the volunteers were split into two random groups. One group came to Hospital das Clínicas twice a week for 45 minutes of supervised treadmill running. The other group visited just once a week for up to 90 minutes of coaching, encouragement, and weekly walking goals — and got a smartwatch to track their steps. Both routines lasted eight weeks.
The results were striking. Participants in both groups reported fewer respiratory symptoms, better clinical control of their asthma, an improved quality of life, and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. And crucially, those benefits were still holding four months after the program ended, when the researchers checked back in.
"When I measured the results, neither strategy outperformed the other," said Pinheiro, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory for Research in Physical Therapy and Exercise (LIFFE) at HC-FM-USP. "But aerobic training requires more equipment and must be supervised. With simple walking, by increasing the daily number of steps, patients tend to manage their condition and gain other benefits."
The team deliberately waited four months before following up to avoid influencing the patients. "We did that so as not to influence them and to let them go about their daily lives," Pinheiro explained. Many in the treadmill group even joined a gym on their own so they could keep using one.
The study builds on earlier research by the same team suggesting that walking 7,500 steps a day already gives patients better clinical control of their asthma. This opens the door to a flexible, accessible, and free option for millions of people — an alternative that requires no fancy equipment, no gym membership, and no supervision, just a decision to move a little more each day.