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How much cardio per week to minimize health risks?

☝🏼Important to keep in mind: The fact that benefits for younger adults (<60y) taper off at about 3h per week are of course impacted by the fact that our overall health is usually much greater when we are young. Therefore, our likelihood to die of anything health related is much lower.


🤔Consequentially, it's fair to say that the true benefits of endurance training only really start to emerge once we become older (>60y). At least as long we are talking about protection from an untimely death.


🏃🏿‍♂️So, while 3h/week seem good enough to keep you in shape while you are younger, it is still very well possible that putting in more work will pay off once you are older. Indeed, you could even say that's likely given everything we know about endurance exercise and health.


🌚At the same time, accumulating a lifelong 3h/week are probably going a very long way, and could be more protective than the classical "not doing anything until I am confronted with a life-threatening disease, upon which I am taking my health very seriously and start working daily".


👩🏽‍⚕️Nevertheless, as far as protection from death goes: about 3h/week seem to get the job done. Once you reach a slightly older age (60+), doing more will lead to more protection (up until those 8h/week that the scientists looked at).


🔥Stay active, folks!


Article reference:

Coleman CJ, McDonough DJ, Pope ZC, et al. Dose–response association of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity with mortality: a national cohort study of 416 420 US adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine; 11 August 2022.






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