The exact amount of exercise needed to optimize your life expectancy has emerged from a large-scale study.
Researchers from Spain, Australia, Canada and Denmark examined the medical records and survey responses of half a million healthy Americans over the age of 18.
They checked 2019 death data to determine the optimal time and type of exercise to reduce the risk of death from various things.
They found that the sweet spot for reducing the risk of premature death from any cause was a combination of moderate and intense cardio supplemented with strength training.
The optimal combination was a weekly routine of one hour and 15 minutes of moderate exercise such as brisk walking, at least two and a half hours of vigorous exercise such as running or swimming, and at least two sessions of strengthening activities such as weightlifting.
This led to a 50 percent lower risk of death from any cause.
To reduce your risk of death from heart disease, stroke or cancer, experts recommend doing at least two sessions of muscle-strengthening activities per week, such as lifting weights.
But doing some physical activity is still better than doing nothing, as a recent study suggested that just 11 minutes a day of brisk walking can reduce the risk of early death by nearly a quarter.
In the latest study, researchers pulled data from 22 rounds of the U.S. National Health Interview Survey conducted between 1997 and 2018, which asked participants how much of certain types of exercise they did.
The participants had a mean age of 46 years and were predominantly female and white.
Weekly exercise routine to reduce your risk of early death
The scientists estimated the participants’ total weekly minutes of moderate and vigorous aerobic physical activity by multiplying frequency and duration.
Participants’ causes of death were tracked and how much of each type of exercise they had done.
They excluded people with current conditions such as cancer, heart disease, lung disease and stroke, and people who died within the first two years of follow-up.
Researchers designed 48 categories that included all possible combinations of moderate aerobic exercise, vigorous aerobic exercise, and strengthening exercise.
They found that for all-cause mortality, “the highest statistically significant risk reduction was observed for the exposure category corresponding to more than zero to 75 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity combined with more than 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic physical activity and two or more strengthening activity sessions per week .’
Currently, the World Health Organization suggests at least two and a half hours of moderate exercise, at least one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise, and muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
The new findings suggest that less moderate exercise and more vigorous exercise is actually needed.
To reduce the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke, the optimal combination found in the study was between two and a half and three hours and 45 minutes of moderate exercise, up to one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise, and at least two sessions muscle strengthening per week.
This routine lowered the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke by 70 percent.
The weekly combination that most reduced the risk of dying from cancer was more than five hours of moderate exercise, one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise, and at least two sessions of muscle strengthening.
It reduced the risk by 56 percent.