Exercise isn’t just a way to stay in shape or calm inflammation, it also has enormous benefits for our overall health. In fact, new research shows that it doesn’t really matter whether your walk or run, so long as you are getting regular exercise.

According to new research, if you want to improve your overall health and reduce your risk of all-cause mortality, make sure you get some type of exercise on a regular basis. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s bi-weekly kickboxing classes or a 30-minute walk around the neighborhood with your dog, so long as you’re moving and working muscle groups.

The findings come on the heels of a study of more than 4,800 adults by the Journal of the American Heart Association. For their study, researchers sorted activity into two different categories – total minutes of activity per day and total minutes of intense or concentrated activity.

The Benefits Of Activity

You may assume that individuals who participated in more concentrated exercise would fare better than individuals who just walked or moved around, but that wasn’t really the case. The study found that neither type of activity had a significant edge over the other. According to researchers, individuals who clocked roughly 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day were significantly less likely to die from any cause than people who got none. Participants who exercised an hour or more each day fared even better.

“The key message based on the results presented is that total physical activity (i.e., of any bout duration) provides important health benefits,” the study authors wrote.

Cardio workouts not only help with your overall health, but they can provide some other benefits as well, like increased blood flow, enhanced memory and improved mood. The overall message from the study is that the more you move, the healthier you are likely to be.