- Exercise is essential for your health, but when you are sedentary, life expectancy gets cut.
- The good news is, it’s never too late to start an exercise routine and reap the benefits.
- Small amounts of activity add up, but being consistent during your life has the biggest benefits.
Many of us cringe at the thought of exercising daily, but the results are undeniable. Regular exercise comes with a wide range of health benefits if you stick to it over time. If you don’t exercise, it’s not too late to start.
Why should you? Because you can start at any time of your life and you’llstillgoing to gain the same health perks. At least that’s the finding ofPedro Saint-Maurice, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and his co-workers. They wanted to know what the health benefits of the “up and down” exercise pattern or even consistent low level activity holds.
The team asked over 300-thousand 50 to 71 year-olds about their activity levels at certain times in their lives. It was no surprise that the more people exercised, the more their risk of death and disease lowered.
The surprise came when some of the subjects said they did little to no exercise when they were younger, but started to pick it up after their 40s. They showed similar declines in risk of death as people who consistently exercised throughout their lives. It was a 29 to 32-percent drop!
Despite the news… Saint-Maurice and company say that shouldn’t be an excuse to stop exercising. It is, however, a great excuse to start.
Source:Time