Sometime in the last 15 years or so, the tone of the fitness industry changed from selling consumers on how easy their programs were (“8 Minute Abs”) to how hard they were (CrossFit, P90X). Each new workout fad promises to be more extreme than the last, but experts say that when it comes to overall health and fitness, simpler is better: Walking, they say, is tops in terms of cardiovascular health and general wellness.

“Actively sedentary is a new category of people who are fit for one hour but sitting around the rest of the day,” said Katy Bowman, scientist and author of Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement. “You can’t offset 10 hours of stillness with one hour of exercise.”

Walking, she says, acts like a “superfood” for the body, suggesting that there are “nutrients” the body receives through movement similar to those absorbed from food. For actively sedentary people, simply moving is easier than properly exercising, and it may be just as (if not more) important.

Many people who consider themselves “active” actually fall into the actively sedentary category. A 2013 study by the University of Texas School of Public Health surveyed 218 recreational marathon and half marathon runners. In reporting their training and sitting times, the researchers determined an average of 6.5 training hours per week, while participants averaged 10.5 sitting hours per day. Even weekend fitness warriors, it seems, are susceptible to moving too little, and not often enough.

A small study of obese people published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise by scientists at Indiana University found that it doesn’t take much walking to stay healthy: For every hour spent sitting, a five-minute walking session is enough to undo the harmful effects sitting causes in the arteries in the legs.