Which types of physical activity may help prolong life span?

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• A mix of healthy lifestyle choices, such as getting enough physical activity, can help people live a longer, healthier life.
• However, the types of physical activity best for longevity remain underexplored.
• A new study says that regularly participating in a variety of different types of physical activity, such as running, cycling, and swimming, may be the best way to help prolong your lifespan.

Research so far has suggested that a mix of healthy lifestyle choices — like eating a healthy diet Trusted Source, not smoking, managing stress, getting enough sleep, and getting enough physical activity — can help us all live longer, healthier lives.

What can be confusing is knowing what types of physical activity are best for longevity.
A recent study published in BMJ Medicine helps answer that question by finding that regularly engaging in a variety of physical activities may be the best way to prolong your life span.

Which physical activities were included?

For this study, researchers analyzed data from two large studies — the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study — comprising more than 173,000 participants. The current study analyzed data from over 111,000 participants.
During these two studies, participants had their physical activity assessed over more than 30 years. Study participants were asked about their involvement in certain activities, including:
• Cardio activities like walking, jogging, running, cycling, rowing, tennis, and swimming.
• Lower-intensity exercises like yoga, stretching, and toning.
• Weight or resistance training
• Vigorous activities like mowing the lawn.
• Moderate-intensity outdoor work, such as gardening.
• High-intensity outdoor work, like digging and chopping.

Yang Hu, ScD, research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Massachusetts, and corresponding author of this study, told Medical News Today that he and his team decided to examine physical activity and its potential impact on life span because it’s a modifiable lifestyle factor to prevent premature death.

“Unlike genetic makeup that you cannot change, people can choose to exercise more to prevent disease and live longer,” Hu explained. “Accumulative research has shown that most chronic diseases are largely preventable from adopting a good diet and lifestyle. As public health researchers, it’s our mission to keep figuring out the ways to prevent diseases and improve life quality, which makes people live longer.”

No extra benefits from beyond a certain amount of exercise
At the study’s conclusion, researchers found that the total physical activity and most individual types of physical activity, except for swimming, were linked to a lower risk of death from any cause.
However, scientists said, these associations weren’t linear — the associations for total physical activity leveled off after reaching a certain number of hours.

“It’s common to see a limit of benefits for healthy lifestyle factors such as physical activity because you can’t expect the risk (to) go down to zero with increasing exercise level,” Hu explained.
“We found that all activities included in this study have such limits, meaning that no additional benefits may be gained beyond certain amounts of exercise. So, combining different activities together may be more effective to receive health benefits as long as the total activity level is maintained.”— Yang Hu, ScD

More physical activity variety, lower mortality risk

Additionally, scientists discovered that participants who engaged in a greater variety of physical activities had a lower mortality risk. Those with the broadest range of physical activities had a 19% lower risk of death from all causes, and a 13-14% lower risk of death from heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer, and other causes.

“It’s a pretty novel finding that engaging in more types of activities at a given total activity level may offer additional health benefits toward longevity,” Hu said. “It means that although maintaining a high level of total physical activity is still most important, mixing up different types of activities that have complementary health benefits may be more helpful to prevent premature death.”
“Habitual engagement of almost all commonly practiced physical activities is beneficial to prevent premature death and achieve longevity,” he added. “It’s important to keep a high level of total physical activity, and on top of that, diversifying the types of activities may be more beneficial.”