- Women in midlife who consistently exercise have better health-related quality of life than their peers who don’t consistently exercise, according to a new study.
- Researchers reported that the benefits of exercise were the same for women who began consistently exercising at age 55 as those who had always exercised.
- Experts say it is important for women to prioritize exercise in midlife, but they recommend easing into an exercise regimen if they are starting a fitness routine for the first time.
Women who exercise consistently in midlife have better health-related quality of life.
That’s according to research published today in the journal PLOS Medicine in which researchers reported that women in their 40s and 50s who consistently adhered to physical activity guidelines had better physical functioning than their peers who didn’t consistently exercise.
“Combined with existing evidence, this study contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in mid-age,” the study authors said in a press statement.
“An important public health message is that being active for as many years as possible, even if women start to meet physical activity guidelines in their mid-50s, could have important health benefits in terms of physical health, especially in physical functioning,” they added.
The researchers from Australia examined data from more than 11,000 women beginning in 1996. The women were born between 1946 and 1951, meaning they were 47 to 52 years of age when the study began.
The participants were categorized into those who met the
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