It's never too late to start exercising and this study proves it.

Being consistently physically active in adulthood is linked to a 30% to 40% lower risk of death from any cause. Similarly, increasing exercise, even if below the recommended levels for health , is associated with a 20% to 25% lower risk . This is according to an analysis published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine .

The findings lead researchers to conclude that switching to a more active lifestyle at any point in adulthood can prolong life, and that it's never too late to start. Currently, it's recommended that adults engage in 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week , or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week , or a combination of both, the researchers note.

But while these recommendations were based on the best available evidence , most of them captured physical activity measurements at a single point in time, which could obscure the potential impact of changing patterns during adulthood , they add.

Therefore, the researchers wanted to discover whether different patterns of physical activity , as well as their cumulative impact during adulthood, could be associated with a lower risk of death from all causes, and specifically from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

They reviewed research databases for relevant studies that assessed physical activity at two or more time points, and included in their review 85 studies published in English through April 2024, with sample sizes ranging from 357 to 6,572,984 participants.

Fifty-nine of the studies examined long-term patterns of physical activity throughout adulthood; 16 examined the average benefits of different levels of physical activity; and 11 explored the potential impact of cumulative physical activity on the risk of death.

To overcome the challenges posed by the different analytical methods used, the researchers conducted separate analyses for each. The pooled data analysis of the study results showed that, overall, higher levels of physical activity were associated with lower risks of all included outcomes.

Consistently active people (32 studies) had a 30-40% lower risk of dying from any cause, while those who increased their physical activity levels (21 studies) below the recommended levels had a 20-25% lower risk of dying from any cause.

Specifically, participants who went from being physically inactive to being active were 22% less likely to die from any cause than those who remained inactive, while those who increased their leisure-time physical activity levels were 27% less likely to do so.

On the other hand, switching from an active lifestyle to an inactive one was not associated with a lower risk of death from any cause. Overall, the associations observed between a high level of physical activity and a lower risk of death were more evident for cardiovascular disease than for cancer.

Compared with participants who were consistently inactive over time, those who were consistently active, either in general or only in their leisure time, were about 40% and 25% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and cancer, respectively.

But overall, evidence of associations between physical activity patterns and cause-specific death remained inconclusive, particularly with regard to death from cancer .

The pooled data suggested that people who were consistently active or who became active had lower risks of death from any cause, and specifically from cardiovascular disease , when they met recommended weekly physical activity levels.

Maintaining physical activity at levels below the recommended weekly amount is associated with significant health benefits.

But being consistently physically active and performing more than the maximum recommended weekly amount of moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise was associated with only a small additional risk reduction.

However, maintaining or increasing physical activity at levels below the recommended weekly amount is associated with significant health benefits, indicating that some physical activity is always better than none , the researchers say.

An average amount of physical activity that met the recommended weekly amount was also associated with a 30% to 40% lower risk of death from all causes. However, they add that " more research is needed" to confirm this.