Vigorous Exercise Lengthens Lives

Are your clients interested
in living longer? Tell them to pick up the pace. New research links higher-intensity exercise with longevity.

Published in JAMA Internal Medicine (2015; doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.0541), the study featured 204,542 individuals aged 45–75 from New South Wales, Australia. The researchers compared subjects’ mortality rates with physical activity data. Individuals who reported regular participation in moderate to vigorous physical activity tended to live longer.

Those who stated that moderate to vigorous physical activity accounted for 30% of their
overall activity had a 9% lower mortality risk during the study than those who did not exercise vigorously. That percentage increased to 13% for adults who reported that more than 30% of their total activity was vigorous. These data held true for all individuals, regardless
of gender, body mass index, and conditions such as existing cardiovascular disease.

“Our findings suggest that vigorous activities should be endorsed in clinical and public health activity guidelines to maximize the population benefits of physical activity,” concluded the authors.