Being Physically Active in Your 50s Can Help Keep You Healthy Into Your 70s

Key Takeaway

Following a regular exercise routine in your fifties can improve your quality of life well into your seventies - even if you weren't active in your earlier years.

For women in their fifties, staying active or getting active may be for quality of life what putting money in a 401k is for retirement savings - an investment that will pay off in the long run.

Exercising regularly during middle age was strongly linked to physical health in later life, even in women who didn't start until they were in their mid-fifties, according to a new study published May 2, 2024, in PLoS Medicine .

Combined with existing studies, this new work contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in middle age, says Binh Nguyen, PhD , lead author and a research fellow at the Prevention Research Collaboration at the University of Sydney in Australia.

"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-fifties. It may be possible to ‘turn back the clock' in midlife through lifestyle changes such as physical activity," says Dr. Nguyen.

Physical Activity Has Proven Benefits for Improving Health

The current U.S. guidelines for physical activity are 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise, or 75 to 150 minutes a week of vigorous intensity exercise, or some combination of the two.

The guidelines also recommend whole-body muscle strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity at least two days a week. Those numbers weren't just pulled out of the air. Many studies show that amount yields the greatest benefits for reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke (the top two causes of death in the United States), type 2 diabetes , some types of cancer, and even some infectious diseases like COVID-19 and the flu .

About 1 in 5 women in the United States meet these guidelines, although that percentage decreases with age.

Regular Exercise in Midlife Linked With Better Quality of Life Later

Although the link between physical activity and health-related quality of life has been shown before, those trials have typically been short-term, or only looked at one point in time, according to the authors. The current study is unique because it examined physical activity levels at multiple time points during midlife in women to explore how different physical activity patterns influence quality of life later on - from both a physical and mental health perspective, says Nguyen.

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For this study, researchers used data collected at three-year intervals beginning in 1996 from over 11,000 women in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The women were between 47 and 52 years old when the study started.

All participants were classified into one of three groups:

• Meeting the WHO physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of activity per week consistently throughout the fifteen-year period that they were followed
• Not meeting the guidelines when the trial began, but starting to meet them at age 55, 60, or 65
• Never meeting the guidelines

Health-related quality of life was assessed using a physical health composite score and mental health composite score from from a survey including 36 questions about functional health and well-being.

The physical part of the survey includes questions about general health, activities like walking, climbing stairs, performing activities like vacuuming or bowling, and how physical health problems interfere with everyday activities. The emotional health questions relate to how much their daily life and activities are impacted by emotional problems or physical pain.

On average, women who consistently met physical activity guidelines and those who first started to meet guidelines at age 55 had a 3-point higher physical composite score. The effect of physical activity on physical quality of life significant even after controlling for socioeconomic factors and preexisting health diagnoses. However, there was no significant association between physical activity and the mental and emotional part of the survey.

"We found that consistently meeting WHO physical activity guidelines (150 minutes of activity a week) over 15 years was associated with better physical health in later life, compared to not meeting the guidelines at all," says Nguyen.

"I hope that the study findings do inspire mid-aged women to stay active or boost their activity. Ideally, women should increase their activity levels to meet physical activity guidelines by age 55," says Nguyen.

It Isn't Too Late to Start Being Physically Active

Overall, this is a great public health message as it supports other already published literature that suggests the same thing, says Deborah Kado, MD , a geriatrician at Stanford Health and co-director of the Stanford Longevity Center, both in Palo Alto, California.

"I think that it is always reassuring to find evidence to suggest that if one makes the effort to change a behavior, that it will be met with positive rewards - in this case, better self-reported physical health years later," says Dr. Kado, who was not involved in the study. "So, if one is already physically active and meets the 150-minute week guideline, these study results would support them to want to continue what they are doing. For those who are not physically active to meet the 150-minute weekly guideline, perhaps the message should be, ‘it isn't too late to start,'" says Kado.

The data collected on physical activity and the physical and mental health assessments were all self-reported, and the assessments are subjective measures, says Kado. "So one must use caution in attributing causality, meaning that we cannot conclude that it was for sure the physical activity and not something else that could have resulted in better self-reported physical health," she says.

Men Would Likely Get Benefits From Regular Exercise, Too

"While there are many differences between women and men, I do think that in the physical activity realm, both sexes benefit with continued or increased regular physical activity as they age," says Kado.

The Link Between Physical Activity and Mental Health Wasn't as Strong

Is it surprising that mental and emotional health wasn't improved by regular and consistent exercise? It's not that mental health wasn't improved, it just was not improved as much, says Nguyen. "There could be several reasons why we observed weaker effects on the mental health components of quality of life. Perhaps the study period was not long enough to see the full effects, or physical activity could affect the physical and mental health components of quality of life differently," she says.

Many studies have found that physical activity has a positive effect on mental health for many reasons, including reducing anxiety, improving sleep, and helping with stress management.

Even Short Bouts of Movement Count Toward Weekly Activity Goals

You don't have to spend hours at the gym each week to meet the activity guidelines (unless, of course, you want to). Every little bit of extra activity you get during the week counts, including things like taking the stairs or going for a 10-minute bike ride around the neighborhood.

While previous recommendations stated that a "bout" of exercise had to last at least 10 minutes to count toward weekly fitness goals, the most recent guidance says that any activity - even things like a brisk walk across the parking lot or vacuuming the house - counts toward your daily activity goals.

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy . We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.

Sources

1. Nguygen B et al. Physical Activity Across Midlife And Health-Related Quality Of Life in Australian Women: A Target Trial Emulation Using a Longitudinal Cohort. PLoS Medicine . May 2, 2024.
2. Current Guidelines. Health.gov.
3. Benefits of Physical Activity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 1, 2023.
4. Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 18 and Over: United States, 2020. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 2022.
5. Physical Activity Is Good for the Mind and the Body. Health.gov. December 15, 2021.

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