Mix it up: why exercise variety may help you live longer

Fitness advice usually asks one question: how much do you move? A 2026 study in BMJ Medicine asks a second one: how many different ways do you move? The answer seems to matter too.

What the researchers did

Researchers at Harvard used data from more than 111,000 men and women in two long-running US health studies, followed for more than 30 years. Every few years participants reported how much time they spent on a range of activities, including walking, running, cycling, swimming, racquet sports, weight training, yoga and stretching, stair climbing and yard work. The team scored both the amount and the variety of each person's activity.

What they found

• Almost every activity type was linked to lower risk of death compared with doing little of it.
• People with the most variety had a 19% lower risk of early death than those with the least, even after accounting for their total amount of activity.
• The link with variety held at every level of total activity.

What it means for you

Try building a simple "movement menu" for your week:

• A base you do most days: walking, cycling to work or taking the stairs.
• Strength twice a week: weights, bands or bodyweight training.
• Something you enjoy: a sport, swimming, hiking, dancing or a class with friends.
• Gentle mobility: yoga or stretching on recovery days.

Variety also keeps training interesting and spreads the load across different muscles and joints, which can make it easier to stick with for years.

Source

Han H, Hu J, Lee DH, et al. Physical activity types, variety, and mortality: results from two prospective cohort studies. BMJ Medicine, 2026. Read the study