Exercise Variety Lowers All-Cause Mortality Risk

Exercise Variety Is Associated With Lower Mortality Risk

Variety may be roughly as important as amount.

Published on: January 23, 2026

Unsurprisingly, people who exercised more had better outcomes than people who exercised less. Yet, the number of different activities had significant effects on outcomes. It is important to note that the least active group may not have been fully inactive, as the study focused on health professionals.

A new study links exercise variety, defined as regularly engaging in several types of physical activity. While the amount of exercise matters, the effect appears to plateau quickly ^[1].

How Exactly Is It Good for You?

Although the statement "exercise is good for you" has become a cliché, researchers continue to uncover new insights into how the amount and specific types of physical activity affect our health. A recent study conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published in the journal BMJ Medicine, delves into the relationship between mortality and the variety of physical activity in two large cohorts of health professionals.

The researchers analyzed data from over 100,000 participants across two significant long-term studies (the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study) over a 30-year period. The former study included only women, while the latter involved only men. Both cohorts were free of diabetes, cancer, and any cardiovascular, respiratory, or neurological disease at baseline. Participants reported their levels of physical activity every two years, resulting in almost 2.5 million person-years recorded.

Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET)

Metabolic equivalent of task (MET) is the amount of energy expended during an activity compared to energy expenditure at rest. In this study, activity doses were expressed as MET-hours/week. For example, brisk walking has a MET value of 3.5 to 4.5, indicating it is about four times more demanding than resting.

Lower Mortality Rates for Most Types of Exercise

Habitual engagement in most measured activities was associated with significantly lower mortality rates. For instance, compared to individuals with the lowest activity levels, those in the highest categories saw risk reductions of:

• Walking: 17% reduction
• Tennis and other racquet sports: 15% reduction
• Rowing/calisthenics: 14% reduction
• Running and weight/resistance training: 13% reduction
• Jogging: 11% reduction

Conversely, two activities demonstrated surprisingly low effect sizes: bicycling (4% risk reduction) and swimming (1% risk increase, although statistically insignificant). This discrepancy may reflect measurement challenges, a well-known issue for both cycling and swimming ^[2].

These mortality benefits appear more modest than those found in earlier studies ^[3]. The comparison group in this study consisted of the lowest quintile of activity, which may not accurately represent true inactivity, particularly given that these participants were health professionals. The authors implemented robust protections against reverse causation (when individuals reduce their activity levels after becoming unhealthy), which tends to reduce associations.

Like many recent studies ^[4], this research illustrates that mortality risk plateaus at certain levels of activity rather than decreasing indefinitely. However, the benefits of exercise diminish fairly quickly (especially for cardiovascular, cancer, and respiratory mortality) around 20 MET-hours per week. This may also result from the reference group not being entirely inactive.

Variety Matters (Usual Caveats Apply)

The researchers went on to compare participants with varying levels of physical activity variety, defined as the number of different types of activities that participants regularly performed. After adjusting for total physical activity, the highest-variety group experienced approximately a 19% lower all-cause mortality compared to the lowest variety group, with comparable reductions across major causes of mortality.

When categorized by both total activity and variety, those with the highest on both metrics had about a 21% lower mortality compared to the lowest-lowest reference group. The authors found no interaction here, indicating that variety enhances benefits across all activity levels rather than solely at high or low volumes.

“People naturally choose different activities over time based on their preferences and health conditions. 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,” said Yang Hu, the corresponding author and research scientist at the Department of Nutrition.

Anna Whittaker, Professor of Behavioral Medicine at the University of Stirling, who was not involved in this study, noted: “This large-scale longitudinal study adds to what we know about the impact of physical activity on mortality by demonstrating that diverse physical activities benefit longevity regardless of total activity levels. This is likely due to the different types of activities having varied physiological effects and helping to meet all the components outlined in physical activity guidelines (i.e., moderate intensity, resistance work, vigorous intensity, flexibility, and recovery activities).”

As is typical with population studies, this research can only show correlation and not causation. The results depend on multiple design choices. Although the authors controlled well for various potential confounders (including age, race/ethnicity, family history of myocardial infarction and cancer, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, energy intake, diet quality, social integration, baseline hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia), it is impossible to eliminate the influence of residual confounding factors such as sleep, stress, or environmental conditions. For instance, individuals who allocate time and energy for various types of activity may have more free time and better sleep health and may reside in environments conducive to exercise.

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About the Author

Arkadi Mazin

Arkadi is a seasoned journalist and op-ed author with a passion for learning and exploration. His interests span from politics to science and philosophy. Having studied economics and international relations, he is particularly interested in the social aspects of longevity and life extension. He strongly believes that life extension is an achievable and noble goal that must take precedence on the agenda of our civilization—a situation he is eager to change.

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