Doing a greater variety of exercises in your gym routine may be linked to a longer lifespan, research suggests. <\/p>\n
Physical activity has long been associated with a lower risk of early death but now researchers have found that the variety of exercise is also important for long-term health. <\/p>\n
After accounting for the quantity of exercise, the team from Harvard\u2019s School of Public Health found those with the broadest range of activity \u00adenjoyed a 19 per cent lower risk of early death from all causes compared with those with the narrowest range. <\/p>\n
Those who undertook more exercise in general also lived for longer, but this effect plateaued at 20 metabolic equivalent task (MET) hours per week, equivalent to about 30 to 60 minutes of brisk walking five days a week. <\/p>\n
Walking for 15 to 20 MET hours per week was associated with a 17 per cent lower risk of early death, while \u00adracquetball, callisthenics, weight training and running followed shortly after.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Moderate exercise \u2018as effective as therapy or drugs for depression\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The research included data from two large studies, which both used repeated physical activity assessments over more than 30 years. The final analysis covered 111,373 people, including 70,725 women and 40,648 men.<\/p>\n Those taking part reported personal information, their medical history and \u00adlifestyle choices every two years, as well as information on exercises such as walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, rowing, tennis and squash, from 1986 onwards. The team then \u00adcalculated an MET score, a measure of how much more energy is burned \u00adduring an activity than when at rest, for each physical activity. <\/p>\n The researchers wrote in the journal BMJ Medicine: \u201cThe finding that a greater variety of physical activities predicted lower all-cause mortality among individuals \u2026 indicated that \u00adengaging in multiple types of physical activities may exert additional health benefits independent of total physical activity levels.\u201d<\/p>\n They added: \u201cLong-term engagement in physical activity is unequivocally associated with a reduced risk of multiple chronic diseases, improved mental health and a better chance of achieving longevity and healthy ageing.\u201d However, their research suggested a \u201cpotential threshold for the beneficial effects of physical acticity\u201d at about 20 MET hours per week. <\/p>\n \u2022 Single ten-minute workout could halt progression of bowel cancer<\/a><\/p>\n The analysis also found that people who did more exercise were less likely to take health risks such as smoking and were more likely to weigh less, eat more healthily and be more social.<\/p>\n Last year, researchers found that as little as 15 minutes of fast walking a day<\/a> could reduce the chance of an early death by 20 per cent.<\/a> <\/p>\n Regular walking, even at a relatively sedate pace, has been shown to offer several benefits, providing a boost to cardiovascular health, cognitive abilities and memory. <\/p>\n The research, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in July, found that more than three hours of slow walking per day, classed simply as \u201cmoving around, walking at work, walking the dog or engaging in light exercise\u201d, can reduce the risk of dying early from a number of causes.<\/p>\n Researchers found, however, that a greater benefit could be achieved from \u201cfast walking as little as 15 minutes a day\u201d. This was classed as \u201cclimbing stairs, brisk walking or exercising\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doing a greater variety of exercises in your gym routine may be linked to a longer lifespan, research…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-427054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}