How Much Longer Will Exercise Make Me Live?

There might be some contrarian physiologist I ’m neglecting here , but it does not finger controversial to say that , among people who study exercise , there is 100 percent consensus re : working out being adept for you . Yet for those of us who have adjusted to feeling physically nasty all the time , “ good for you ” might not cut it , motivator - wise . More appealing , perhaps , is the aspect of a long life-time .

Not lifting weightiness is extremely fun , as is not biking , and not participating in amateur hockey conference , but is the joy of not doing those thing really worth choke earlier , than say , someone who does doodly-squat ? Before answering that , it would be utilitarian to know just how much more life one might pretty expect from a veritable drill regimen . For this week ’s Giz Asks , we attain out to a number of experts to recover out .

Benjamin Levine

Professor of Internal Medicine and holder of the Distinguished Professorship in Exercise Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center , as well as Founder and Director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine ( IEEM )

If you prevent death from , lease ’s say , cardiovascular disease , you still might die from malignant neoplastic disease . you could ride your bike regularly , and be very primed , but still get hit by a elevator car . There are a variety of what we call ‘ competing risks ’ in life . So it really depend on who you are , and how former you are , and what your risk agent for a variety of unlike life - ending case might be .

We know that exercise reduces the risks of multiple unlike thing — most dramatically cardiovascular disease ( by as much as 50 % , reckon on what the circumstances may be ) . That number will motley reckon on your wellness , or whether you have underlie cardiovascular disease , or if you had a heart fire in the past . But there ’s no doubt that , in virtually every subject , the resolution is substantial reduction in cardiovascular last . It ’s concentrated to give a turn of how many month or years longer you might live , but what ’s more significant is that it will make you fit and unattackable and help you live on better .

Illustration: Angelica Alzona (Gizmodo)

When I talk to people about exercise I say you need to make it part of your personal hygienics — the same way you sweep your teeth , change your underwear , and seek to eat up well . My prescription for lifetime is 4 - 5 days a week of some sort of exercise . I recommend that everyone do at least one long session once a week lasting at least an hour and make it something fun — it could be a dance course of study , it could be some lawn tennis , it could be a walk of life with your partner , it could be a recollective bike ride in the parkland . I do n’t manage what it is , but it has to be relatively retentive and something that you enjoy . I also urge you do at least 1 day a workweek of something that ’s high intensity . There are a variety of dissimilar types of interval breeding . And then 2 - 3 day a workweek of the kind of moderate to vigorous volume workout that most people imagine about when they think about utilization — come on a bike or an elliptical , going out for a run or a brisk base on balls , etc . Something that will leave you where you ’re short enough of break to keep talking , but you ca n’t sing .

Larry Tucker

Professor , Exercise Science , Brigham Young University

No one can call how long an individual will live . However , as a group , exercisers live importantly longer than sedentary adult . Although there are many different methods that can be used to estimate the extra years gymnastic apparatus may gain from their physical activity , one scheme is to mensurate their telomere . telomere are the end - caps of chromosomes . The length of telomere provide a good indication of how old a person is biologically .

In a subject area I conducted , a totality of 5,823 U.S. grownup were examined . human and women who performed high levels of physical activity each hebdomad had much farsighted telomeres than their counterparts . In fact , the duration of telomeres showed that adults with eminent levels of weekly bodily function had almost 9 years less biologic aging compare to those who were sedentary .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

In the investigation , several dozen different physical activities were assessed , so there were many thing adults could do to increase their physical fitness levels . Those who do vigorous action 35 - 45 minutes or more per daylight , five day per calendar week , had the long telomeres . Individuals who practise at a temperate intensity had to do their activities much longer , an hour or more per school term . Although mellow levels of physical action and longer telomere do not guarantee a recollective animation , they definitely increase the likeliness .

Angelique Brellenthin

CardioRACE Project Manager and Postdoctoral Associate , Kinesiology , Iowa State University , who has studied hightail it as a cardinal lifestyle medicine for longevity

After take into bill , eld , sexuality , smoking , corpulency , and other medical precondition like high-pitched blood pressure and diabetes , we found in a cogitation we conducted that runners dwell on average 3 long time longer than non - runners , which is similar to what other studies on runners have found . We further estimated that for every 1 hour you pass running , you net bring in an additional 7 hours of life . Beyond running , other studies have find that hoi polloi survive on average 3 - 4 days longer if they are on a regular basis combat-ready compared to inactive . However , most of this evidence comes from ego - report participation in traditional aerobic activities like walking , biking , or swim . We fuck very little about the possible longevity rise you’re able to get from participating in other popular forms of exercise , like resistance preparation . There is growing grounds that sinewy forte and function is just as crucial as aerobic fitness for mature well . No matter what , though , you only get a seniority benefit by doing use in the foresightful - term , which have in mind that you should select an activity that you bask and that feels good for your soundbox . There are eternal slipway to be active , but often it ’s the dim-witted body process , like walk , that are most sustainable for life .

Hirofumi Tanaka

Professor , Kinesiology and Health Education , The University of Texas at Austin

Regular forcible action bring large number of benefits for most electric organ and tissue we have in our body . It also act to reduce previous deaths from common cardiovascular outcome including middle attack and throw . Even if you see similar kinds of spirit attack , damages that you go through tend to be much less if you are exercising regularly . But there is no ripe evidence showing that veritable strong-arm natural process extend lifespan .

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William Duplessie