You might want to consider mixing up the different types of exercise you do throughout the week: a new study has found a significant link between a greater variety of physical activities and a lower mortality risk.
Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US analyzed data on more than 111,000 individuals collected over 30 years, mapping self-reported exercise routines against deaths during the study period.
The stats showed that those who varied their exercise the most had a 19 percent lower risk of death across the study period, compared to those who varied their exercise the least, assuming a broadly equal amount of exercise overall.
“The findings support the notion that promoting engagement in a diverse range of physical activity types, alongside increasing total physical activity levels, may help reduce the risk of premature death,” write the researchers in their published paper.
Contributory factors, including lifestyle habits, demographics, and dietary habits, were accounted for. Though the nature of the study means it doesn’t show direct cause and effect, the results describe a strong association that’s worth investigating further.
The researchers looked at the impact of different types of exercise. (Han et al., BMJ Med., 2026)
The researchers point out that working through a mix of exercises involves different parts of the body, potentially leading to a more rounded health improvement.
Doing more exercise in total was also linked to living longer, emphasizing the long-term benefits of fitting moderate amounts of physical activity into our daily lives.
However, there was a plateau around the 20-hours-per-week mark: putting in more hours than that didn’t move the needle much either way when it came to mortality risk.
Activities recorded by the study covered a wide range of different exercise types, from swimming and cycling to mowing the lawn and climbing stairs. As long as you’re getting moving with a reasonable amount of vigor, it counts.
“People naturally choose different activities over time based on their preferences and health conditions,” says nutrition scientist Yang Hu.
“When deciding how to exercise, keep in mind that there may be extra health benefits to engaging in multiple types of physical activity, rather than relying on a single type alone.”
There are some limitations to bear in mind: Physical activity was self-reported rather than monitored scientifically, and the datasets used were primarily made up of White health professionals. What’s more, the study didn’t assess the difference made by switching exercise routines – it just compared routines between people.
That said, we get some interesting new insight into the benefits of exercise. We know that even the smallest amounts can make a difference, and it could be a good idea to mix up exercise types too.
Related: Exercise Is Emerging as a Powerful Treatment For Depression
“The new finding in this study was that physical activity variety may also be good for health,” says Tom Yates, a physiologist from the University of Leicester in the UK, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“In some ways this might be analogous to diet, variety in and off itself could have health benefits.”
The research has been published in BMJ Medicine.