Late to exercise? No worries: Study shows starting in your 40s still boosts health

Even if you are exercising late in life, several health benefits will follow, according to a large study.

Research published in PLOS Medicineanalyseddata from over 11,000 Australian women and found that achieving physical activity guidelines of at least 150 minutes per week throughout midlife is critical.

This suggests that women in their 40s and 50s still have ample opportunity to improve their health through exercise.

The study found that women who followed these recommendations over the next 15 years had better physical health than those who did not.

Even individuals who were not regular exercisers before middle age saw benefits from starting a new exercise routine.

In fact, in the last follow-up research, this group's physical test results were remarkably similar to those of women who exercised consistently before the age of 50, and three percentage points higher than those who never or rarely fulfilled the exercise criteria.

How did researchers collected the data?

From 1998 to 2019, the study followed 47 to 52-year-old women in Australia, with three-year intervals for mental and physical health checks.

The study found that women who began regularly exercising only in their 60s did not see the same benefits as those who began in their 50s.

This might be because there "had not been sufficient accumulation of physical activity for the health benefits to be evident by around age 70."

"Our findings suggest that to maintain good physical health-related quality of life at around age 70, one may be able to "make up" for not being active earlier by becoming active in the mid-50s," wrote the research team.

"This finding supports public health initiatives for messaging around "turning back the clock" in midlife through lifestyle changes such as physical activity," they added.

"Combined with existing evidence, this study contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in mid-age," the researchers said.

While further research is needed to determine if these physical benefits also apply to males in midlife, there is reason to believe they do.

(With inputs from agencies)