The pace that adds years, not just miles
Slow, small amounts of running go with a longer life in the big studies. Running harder doesn't seem to add much.
In 2014, a team working with the Cooper Clinic records in Dallas looked at 55,137 adults over about 15 years. Some ran in their spare time. Most didn't.
The runners had a 30% lower risk of dying from any cause, and a 45% lower risk of dying from heart disease. On average, they lived about three years longer.
The part people skip is who counted as a runner. The benefit looked about the same for the slowest group as for the fastest. That included people running under 6 mph, which is slower than a 10-minute mile, under 51 minutes a week, once or twice a week.
How little running is enough?
Less than most plans suggest. A 2020 review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine pooled 14 studies, which recorded 25,951 deaths over follow-ups of 5 to 35 years.
Runners had a 27% lower risk of early death, 30% lower from heart disease and 23% lower from cancer. The lower risk showed up even in people running once a week or for less than 50 minutes a week. The authors found no clear sign that running more added more.
Can you run too much?
A 2015 Copenhagen study made headlines with this one. Light joggers had the lowest death rates. Strenuous joggers, who ran fast and often, didn't do significantly better than people who didn't exercise at all.
Before you hang up your trainers: very few people were in that strenuous group, so the numbers are shaky. The authors said so themselves. An editorial alongside the paper read it as a lack of extra benefit at high doses, not proof of harm.
So, going harder doesn't seem to buy you many more years. Nobody has shown that it costs you any either.
What these studies can't tell you
All three studies watched people. None of them assigned anyone to run. People who choose to run may sleep better, eat differently or smoke less, and the statistics can only correct for some of that.
The 2014 study was funded by Coca-Cola, and some of its authors had ties to the fitness industry. That doesn't make it wrong, but you should know.
What it means if you're starting
1. Slow counts
The 2014 results held below 6 mph. If you can talk in full sentences while you jog, you're in the range these studies looked at.
2. Small counts
Once or twice a week, under an hour in total, showed up in both the 2014 study and the 2020 review.
3. Keeping going counts most
In the 2014 study, people who kept running over the years had the biggest drop: 29% lower risk of death from any cause and 50% lower from heart disease, compared with people who never ran. A pace you can keep for six years beats a plan you drop in six weeks.
How many minutes a week do I need?
Nobody has an exact number. The lower risk appeared below 50 minutes a week in both large analyses.
Is jogging slowly enough to help?
In the 2014 study, yes. The slowest runners had about the same benefit as the fastest.
Where to start
Molorun's first session is one minute of running. Level 1 is six sessions and free. Go slower than feels useful.
Scientific Sources
- Lee DC et al. (2014), Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Leisure-time running reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk.
- Pedisic Z et al. (2020), British Journal of Sports Medicine. Is running associated with a lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and is the more the better? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
- Schnohr P et al. (2015), Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dose of jogging and long-term mortality: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.