Achieving the recommended exercise guidelines during midlife has huge benefits for women

According to new research, women who consistently achieve the recommended exercise guidelines throughout their middle age have almost half the risk of dying from any cause compared to women who do not achieve the recommended guidelines.

Quick Reminder:

Exercise Guidelines for adults aged 19-64

• Adults should accumulate at LEAST 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity (like walking, swimming or cycling) and/or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (like running).

• Muscle strengthening exercises that include all major muscle groups should be done on at LEAST 2 days a week.

• For optimal physical and mental wellbeing, adults should aim to be physically active every day.

The research that found achieving the recommended guidelines to be beneficial to middle aged women used data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 who enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. The women were followed up every 3 years between 1996 and 2019. Data was analysed to see how often the women achieved at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week. The research is published in PLOS Medicine.