According to JAMA Internal Medicine, more than 111,000 deaths in the US can be prevented if adults over 40 years old just exercised daily for 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity.

Using accelerator data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers looked at the activity levels of almost 5,000 participants between the ages of 40 to 85 and tracked death rates.

The authors found that the more time people exercised people spent in the moderate to vigorous physical activity level per day, the more estimated deaths it prevented. By adding just 10 minutes, it death reduction was 6.9% per year; at 20 minutes and 30 minutes, lead to 13% and 16.9% reduction, respectively.

“We know exercise is good for us. This study provides additional evidence of the benefits at the population level: if all adults in the United States (over age 40) were to exercise just a bit more each day, a large number of deaths could be prevented each year,” stated Pedro Saint-Maurice, the study’s first author. 

So what are you just sitting on your ass for? We don’t need another study to show that exercise is good for you. Go set aside 30 minutes of vigorous to strenuous exercise per day and do it, no excuses.

P. Saint-Maurice et al. Estimated number of deaths prevented through increased physical activity among US adults. JAMA Internal Medicine 2022. Online first: 01/24/2022. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.7755