Get Healthy!

• Posted July 15, 2025

Consistent Physical Activity Lowers Risk Of Death

Adults who are consistently physically active have an overall lower risk of premature death, even if they pick up the habit later, a new evidence review says.

People who get regular exercise are 30% to 40% less likely to suffer an early death from any cause, researchers reported July 10 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Additionally, those who increased their level of physical activity further lowered their risk of death by 20% to 25%, results show.

“Initiating physical activity at any point in adulthood can provide health benefits,” concluded the research team led by Gregore Mielke, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia.

For the new study, researchers reviewed data pooled from 85 previous studies on the effect of physical activity on health and risk of death. The studies ranged in size from 357 participants to more than 6.5 million.

The team was specifically interested in whether switching to a more active lifestyle could help a person live longer.

Results showed that people who started exercising after being inactive were 22% less likely to die prematurely from any cause.

Likewise, more active people who increased their physical activity levels were 27% less likely to die, researchers said.

All told, people who were consistently active or became active had a lower risk of death when they met recommended weekly physical activity levels, researchers said.

But even those who got physical activity below the recommended amount appeared to benefit, researchers found.

“This aligns with the evidence that physical activity levels lower than the guidelines can also bring appreciable health benefits, and the statement that some physical activity is always better than none,” researchers wrote.

However, getting more than the recommended weekly amount of exercise was associated with only a small additional reduction in risk, researchers said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.

Moderate-intensity exercise can include brisk walking, slow bicycling, doubles tennis, active yoga, ballroom or line dancing, general yard work or water aerobics, the CDC says.

Vigorous exercise includes jogging, swimming laps, singles tennis, aerobic dancing, fast bicycling, jumping rope or yard work that involves digging or shoveling.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on measuring physical activity intensity.

SOURCES: BMJ Group, news release, July 10, 2025; British Journal of Sports Medicine, study, July 10, 2025