Want to Live as Long as Possible? This is How Much to Exercise
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How much exercise should you do?
More.
A new study analyzed physical activity and medical records for more than 100,000 people over 30 years to determine the optimal amount of exercise for longevity.
The results showed that adults who did 2–4 times the recommended amount of physical activity lived the longest.
Current guidelines call for adults to engage in at least 150–300 minutes per week of moderate physical activity or 75–150 minutes per week of vigorous physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both.
The good news is that simply meeting the lower end of these recommendations helps you live longer.
The analysis showed that meeting the guidelines for vigorous physical activity was associated with a 19% lower risk of death and hitting the moderate intensity recommendations resulted in a 20–21% lower risk of death.
That’s a pretty good return on investment for under 30 minutes of exercise per day.
But going above and beyond is even better.
Doing 2–4 times the recommended amount of vigorous physical activity (150–300 minutes per week) was associated with a 21–23% lower risk of death from all causes.
Engaging in 2–4 times more than the recommended amount of moderate physical activity (300–600 minutes per week) led to a 26–31% lower risk of mortality.
Going above 4x the recommendations (300 minutes of high intensity physical activity or 600 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity) was not shown to be harmful, but it didn’t yield any additional health benefits.
The study concluded that performing 150–300 minutes per week of vigorous physical activity, 300–600 minutes per week of moderate physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both, is optimal to maximize lifespan.
Very few people achieve this level of physical activity. It is a worthy goal to be one of them.
