All exercise is good exercise — but certain kinds may help you live longer than others.
The widely accepted belief that movement is medicine is true for so many reasons, from improving your mental health to decreasing your risk of an early death.
But new research shows that some types of exercise may be better at lowering your risk of dying prematurely, especially if you embrace one key strategy to maximize health benefits.
A study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Medicine suggests you might be able to literally walk away from an early grave.
The research also implies that mixing up the kinds of physical activity you do may be best for prolonging your life.
Researchers examined data from two large studies — including 70,725 women and 40,648 men — tracking how often they exercised each week.
The activities included walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, rowing, tennis, squash or racquetball, weight training and yoga.
Participants also recorded activities like lawn mowing, gardening, digging outdoors and stair climbing.
Metabolic equivalent scores were calculated for each activity. The scores reflected the amount of energy used and the number of hours spent on each activity over a week.
Walking had the lowest risk of early death, at 17%, for those who walked the most, compared to those who did the least during the week.
People who participated in the widest range of activities had a 19% lower risk of death from any cause.
You should also consider taking the stairs next time, as climbing steps was associated with a 10% lower risk.
And while most individual types of activity were linked to a lower chance of early death from any cause, swimming and cycling were the two least effective activities, with only a 4% lower risk for the latter.
How did the other activities compare?
Racquet sports like tennis and squash had a 15% lower risk, followed by rowing with 14% less risk.
Lifting weights and running, meanwhile, had the same risk reduction at 13%.
But researchers noted that it’s not entirely clear if different workouts outweigh the quantity of physical movement, with the data suggesting there may be a point when an activity stops being beneficial.
Any connections between preventing early death and total physical activity leveled off after participants reached 20 MET hours a week.
Regardless, and in less surprising findings, those with higher physical activity levels were less likely to have health risk factors that can contribute to death, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
These participants also weighed less, drank less alcohol, socialized more and ate healthier diets.
