Variety is the spice of life, they say.

It can give you more life, I say.

Doing several different kinds of exercise seems to keep people alive longer than doing just one thing, even if the total “amount” of exercise is the same.

Researchers pooled data from two major US cohorts (Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow‑Up Study), including 70,725 women and 40,742 men free of diabetes, CVD, cancer, respiratory or neurological disease at baseline, followed for 2,431,318 person‑years. They examined specific leisure activities (walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, racquet sports, rowing/callisthenics, resistance training, stair climbing) and “variety” (number of different activities done consistently over time). In multivariable models, the highest vs lowest category of each activity was associated with lower all‑cause mortality for most modalities (e.g., HR 0.83 for walking, 0.87 for running, 0.87 for weight training; swimming showed no clear benefit). After adjusting for total MET‑hours, those in the highest variety group had about 19% lower all‑cause mortality and 13–41% lower mortality from cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, and other causes than those with the least variety.

Source: BMJ Medicine, 2026; Physical activity types, variety, and mortality: results from two prospective cohort studies.

De Bono black hat.

This is a large, long‑running, well‑adjusted prospective cohort analysis with hard outcomes (all‑cause and cause‑specific mortality), but it is still observational and conducted in relatively health‑conscious US health professionals. Residual confounding and healthy‑user bias cannot be excluded, and the effect sizes are modest (HRs mostly in the 0.8–0.9 range). It largely confirms prior data that “any activity is good,” while adding the nuance that variety may provide an additional, independent advantage.

Takeaways for patients and protocols:

Aim for at least 150–300 minutes per week of moderate or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity (e.g., brisk walking, cycling, jogging), in line with established guidelines but encourage patients to regularly include 3–5 different activity types across the week (e.g., walking, some form of resistance training, a racquet or group sport, plus stair climbing or calisthenics), as higher “variety scores” were linked to ~19% lower mortality independent of total activity.