Staying physically active is important for good health, but a new study published in BMJ Medicine suggests that doing a mix of different types of physical activities—not just more of one kind—may be especially helpful for living longer.
However, the benefits don’t keep increasing endlessly. There seems to be an “optimal threshold” for how much activity is most effective.
Researchers found that variety in exercise, like walking, swimming, weight training, gardening, or playing tennis, is linked to a lower risk of death. This is true even if the total amount of exercise isn’t extremely high. So, adding different activities to your routine may be more beneficial than just doing more of the same workout.
The research team looked at data from two large long-term studies: the Nurses’ Health Study with over 121,000 women and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study with over 51,000 men. Participants shared information about their health and physical activity every two years for over 30 years.
The researchers tracked the types of activities people did, including walking, running, cycling, swimming, yoga, weightlifting, and outdoor work. They also asked participants how many flights of stairs they climbed daily. All activities were measured using a score called MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task), which shows how much energy an activity uses.
More than 111,000 participants were included in the final analysis. Over the 30-year period, nearly 39,000 people died, including almost 10,000 from heart disease, over 10,000 from cancer, and more than 3,000 from lung conditions.
Overall, people who exercised more had a lower risk of death from any cause. But the benefits seemed to level off after reaching 20 MET hours per week, suggesting that doing more than that may not add much extra benefit. Walking was especially helpful, lowering the risk of death by 17% for the most active walkers compared to the least. Climbing stairs reduced the risk by 10%.
Other activities also showed strong benefits: tennis and racquet sports (15% lower risk), rowing or calisthenics (14%), weight training (13%), running (13%), jogging (11%), and cycling (4%).
The study also found that people who did a wider variety of exercises had an even lower risk of death.
Those who regularly did many different types of physical activity had a 19% lower risk of dying from all causes, and a 13–41% lower risk of dying from heart disease, cancer, lung problems, or other causes—even after adjusting for how much total exercise they did.
However, the researchers point out that this is an observational study. That means it shows patterns but can’t prove cause and effect. There were also some limitations. People self-reported their exercise habits, which can be inaccurate. And most of the participants were white, which may limit how well the findings apply to other populations.
Still, the findings suggest that combining different types of physical activities—rather than just sticking to one routine—could help improve your health and increase your chances of living longer. Staying active in more than one way may support different systems in the body and lead to better overall results.
If you care about wellness, please read studies about nutrients that could combat inflammation in older people, and essential foods for healthy aging.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the link between processed foods and chronic diseases, and a simple diet change for a healthier life after 65.
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