The standard advice often boils down to simple math: move 150 minutes a week and everything will be fine. Unfortunately, this approach misses an important detail. The human body is a complex mechanism, and the stress of swimming is radically different from the effect of tennis or weight lifting. Aerobic exercises train the endurance of the heart and lungs, while strength exercises strengthen bones and maintain muscle mass. If you focus only on one thing, other systems are left without proper attention. For a long time, science could not say exactly how important it is to combine these types, but now, thanks to the study of the questionnaires of 111 thousand people, the answer has been found. Scientists have been observing the volunteers for three decades. The main task was to separate the impact of the total volume of loads from their diversity. The numbers speak for themselves: those who practiced the widest range of activities died 19 percent less often than those who fixated on one thing. The bonus remained even when the analysts equalized the total number of calories burned. That is, with the same efforts and time spent, the “all-around athletes” turned out to be healthier than narrow specialists. Mixing loads creates a synergistic effect, protecting the body better than any sport individually. The benefits of specific types of activity were distributed as follows:

Type of activity	Reducing the risk of premature death
Walking	17%
Tennis / Squash	15%
Running	13%
Strength training	13%

Swimming is an exception to this list. Statistics, to the surprise of experts, did not show a significant reduction in the risks of swimmers compared with sedentary people. Perhaps the reason lies in the difficulty of accurately accounting for the intensity of swimming, but the fact remains that a pool alone may not be as effective for prolonging life as its combination with a gym and a court. The essence of the discovery is simple: our body needs a shake-up and new challenges. Rocket sports develop coordination and reaction, running trains the heart muscle, and dumbbells save the body from age-related decrepitude. Try to dilute the routine. If you’re only used to walking, add a couple of strength sessions a week or sign up for dancing. A versatile approach will not only make classes more interesting, not letting you get bored, but it will also really add several quality years to your life.