Research

Mixed

Engaging in high volumes of physical activity (up to 5000 MET min/week, approx. 10-12 hours of vigorous activity weekly) is associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk compared to recommended levels, with no evidence of increased mortality risk at these high volumes.

If you are already active, you do not need to worry that increasing your exercise volume to 10-12 hours of vigorous activity per week will harm your longevity. The data shows that doing significantly more than the standard recommendation continues to be associated with lower mortality risk, with no identified 'danger zone' for lifespan within these high volumes.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Compared with the recommended level of physical activity (750 MET min/week), mortality risk was lower at physical activity levels exceeding the recommendations, at least until 5000 MET min/week for all cause mortality... and for CVD mortality... Further, there was no threshold beyond which lifespan was compromised.
Kim Blond et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2019

Why this rating

Large-scale meta-analysis of 48 prospective cohort studies with rigorous dose-response modeling, though limited by observational design and self-reported data in most studies.

Source

Association of high amounts of physical activity with mortality risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Kim Blond et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2019

DOI 10.1136/bjsports-2018-100393

Meta-analysis · 48 studiesCited 192×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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