It’s Never Too Late: More Exercise Can Prolong Your Life

Regular physical activity in adulthood is associated with a 30 to 40% lower risk of dying from any cause later in life, while even increasing activity levels above the recommended levels for health is associated with a 20 to 25% lower risk. This is the conclusion of a data analysis published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The results lead the researchers to conclude that switching to a more active lifestyle at any point in adulthood can extend life expectancy and that it is never too late to start.

Link Between Physical Activity and Risk of Death

The current recommendation is that adults should engage in 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous physical activity or a combination of both each week, according to the researchers. While these recommendations are based on the best available evidence, most measurements of physical activity were taken at a single point in time, which may not have taken into account the potential effects of changing patterns in adulthood, they add. The experts therefore wanted to find out whether different patterns of physical activity and their cumulative effects in adulthood could be associated with a lower risk of all causes of death and, in particular, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

They searched research databases for relevant studies that assessed physical activity at two or more time points and included 85 studies published in English between 1990 and April 2024 with a sample size ranging from 357 to 6,572,984 participants in their analysis. Fifty-nine of the studies examined long-term exercise patterns in adulthood, 16 examined the average benefits of different levels of exercise, and 11 examined the potential influence of cumulative physical activity on the risk of death. To overcome the challenges posed by the different analysis methods, the researchers conducted separate analyses for each method.

Regular Exercise is Associated With a Lower Risk of Dying from Cardiovascular Disease

The pooled data analysis of the study results showed that, overall, higher levels of physical activity were associated with a lower risk of all outcomes examined. Consistently active people (32 studies) had a 30–40% lower risk of dying from any cause, while those who increased their level of physical activity (21 studies) from below the recommended levels had a 20–25% lower risk of dying from any cause. In particular, participants who switched from physical inactivity to physical activity had a 22% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who remained inactive, while those who increased their leisure-time physical activity had a 27% lower risk. On the other hand, switching from an active to an inactive lifestyle was not associated with a lower risk of death from any cause. In general, the associations between high levels of physical activity and lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease were stronger than those for cancer.

Compared to participants who were inactive for a long period of time, those who were active throughout or only in their free time were about 40% and 25% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and cancer, respectively. Overall, however, the evidence for an association between physical activity patterns and cause-specific mortality remained unclear, particularly for cancer mortality. The pooled data suggested that people who were consistently active or became active had a lower risk of dying from any cause, and particularly from cardiovascular disease, when they achieved the recommended weekly amounts of physical activity. However, continuous physical activity and more than the recommended weekly maximum amount of moderate to vigorous exercise was associated with only a small additional risk reduction. However, maintaining or increasing physical activity below the recommended weekly amount was associated with noticeable health benefits, suggesting that some physical activity is always better than none, according to the researchers.

Research Underscores the Importance of Long-Term Physical Activity

And an average level of physical activity that met the recommended weekly amount was also associated with a 30–40% lower risk of all causes of death. However, further research is needed to confirm this, they add. The researchers acknowledge some limitations to their findings, including the fact that most of the studies included in the pooled data analyses were based on subjective assessments of physical activity, which may not always be accurate. In addition, there were few studies that looked at the cumulative amount of physical activity or cancer deaths.

Nevertheless, the findings have important implications for public health, the researchers emphasize. First, they underscore the importance of physical activity in adulthood and show that starting at any point in adulthood may offer survival benefits. They add: “Since continuous physical activity provides greater health benefits than previous activity (i.e., when activity was not maintained), this underscores the importance of long-term physical activity. Future physical activity interventions should not only target inactive individuals but also support active individuals in maintaining their activity levels.”