Exercising like the most active 25% of Americans can help those over 40 add an extra 5 years to their life on average, according to new research.
In the study, published Thursday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers created a predictive model to estimate the impact of different levels of physical activity on life expectancy using data about people who were at least 40 years old from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey and other sources.
Though it was an observational study, which doesn’t prove cause and effect, the findings suggest increased focus on physical activity can potentially pay off in terms of Americans’ lifespans.
“Our findings suggest that (physical activity) provides substantially larger health benefits than previously thought, which is due to the use of more precise means of measuring (it),” the authors wrote.
So how much do you have to exercise to gain the potential benefits? The total physical activity of the most active 25% of Americans was equivalent to 160 minutes of walking at a normal pace, or about 3 miles per hour, every day, according to the study.
If all Americans over 40 matched this level of activity, life expectancy at birth would bump from 78.6 years to nearly 84 years, about a 5-year increase in average lifespan.
If the least active Americans committed to an extra 111 minutes of walking daily, the effects were even more dramatic, the estimates indicate — adding almost 11 years to the average lifespan.
This isn’t the first time research has highlighted the health benefits of walking.
A study last year from the same journal found walking just 11 minutes per day could significantly lower the risk of stroke, heart disease and some cancers.
Other viral fitness trends like the “hot girl walk” and “fart walk” have also encouraged Americans to get their walking shoes on for a number of physical and mental health positives.
