- According to a new study, a balanced regimen of moderate and vigorous activity, along with two muscle-strengthening sessions a week, can reduce the risk of various forms of mortality.
- The study also found even greater reductions in mortality risk by exceeding current physical activity guidelines.
- The study suggests that clinicians should ease their physically inactive patients into a healthy mix of exercises.
When it comes to lowering the risk of all-cause mortality or death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, is one form of exercise better than another? Or is there a particular combination of exercises that optimizes one’s chances of longevity?
A new study looks into the ideal combination of exercise types for living longer. It assesses various combinations of moderate aerobic physical activity (MPA), vigorous aerobic physical activity (VPA), and muscle-strengthening activity (MSA).
The study finds that a balanced amount of MPA, VPA, and MSA were most closely associated with a lower risk of dying, although the mix of activities depended on the type of mortality.
The optimal combination for lowering the risk of:
- all-cause mortality — was greater than 0–75 minutes each week of MPA together with over 150 minutes of VPA, plus two or more MSA sessions each week.
- cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality — was more than 150–225 minutes of MPA, more than 0–75 minutes of VPA, plus two or more MSA sessions.
The 2020 World Health Organization exercise recommendations per week are 150 to 300 minutes of MPA, 75 to 150 minutes of VPA, or some relatively equivalent combination of them, plus MSA sessions on two days.
The study also found that MPA exercise levels greater than the current recommendations may reduce the risk of mortality even further.
With more than 300 minutes of MPA, greater than 0 to 75 minutes of VPA, and two or more MSA sessions per week, the researchers observed an approximately 50% lower mortality rate for all-cause and cancer mortality,…
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