Exercise Variety May Lower Your Risk of Early Death

This big study found that people who mixed up their exercise routine had a lower risk of death than people who stuck to just one type of workout. Walking, jogging, running, tennis, rowing, stair climbing, and resistance training all looked helpful, while swimming did not really make the cut.

The researchers found that regular exercise of most kinds was linked with a lower risk of death. The main message is simple: variety seemed to help, even after they counted total exercise time.

The team used data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Participants said what they did for exercise every two years, and the researchers looked at how those habits lined up with later deaths from all causes, heart disease, cancer, and respiratory disease.

To keep the results cleaner than a freshly wiped treadmill, the analysis used a four-year lag between activity reports and death risk. The authors also adjusted for smoking, diet, body mass index, alcohol, hypertension, cholesterol, and other health factors.

Most activities were linked with lower all-cause mortality when people stayed in the highest activity groups. The strongest patterns showed up for walking, tennis or squash, rowing or callisthenics, and resistance training.

Compared with the lowest activity groups, the highest groups had hazard ratios of 0.83 for walking, 0.85 for tennis or squash, 0.86 for rowing or callisthenics, and 0.87 for weight training. Jogging and running also helped, but the gains were a little smaller.

Swimming was the odd one out. In this analysis, it was not clearly linked with lower mortality, which may say more about who swims and how often than about swimming itself.

Variety meant how many different activities a person did on a regular basis. People in the highest variety group had 19% lower all-cause mortality after the researchers accounted for total activity level.

They also had 13% to 41% lower risk of death from specific causes. That suggests different workouts may help the body in different ways, from fitness and muscle strength to balance and metabolic health.

In plain English, your body may like a little mix platter. If you only walk, that is still good, but adding strength work, biking, or a racquet sport may give you more bang for your sweat.

• Keep your main activity, then add one new type every few weeks.
• Pair walking with strength training if you want a simple start.
• Use stairs, biking, or short court games to break up long sitting days.
• Choose activities you can stick with, because long-term habits mattered most here.

You do not need a perfect fitness plan to get benefits. The goal is to move often and build a routine that includes more than one kind of exercise.

This study suggests that both more movement and more variety are linked with a longer life. If you already exercise, try adding one new activity instead of just doing more of the same.