# @mackinprof on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DT09maqk9Dh
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/59738790-mackinprof-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/619388f0d8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-01-22T21:09:58.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Stuart Phillips (@mackinprof) — https://gondola.cc/mackinprof

## Caption

Those squiggly exercise curves? Let’s talk. 👀🚶‍♂️🚴‍♀️🏋️‍♀️

https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/5/1/e001513
Physical activity types, variety, and mortality: results from two prospective cohort studies

A large new study examined the types of physical activity, variety, and mortality over decades of follow-up. The headlines are mostly solid… but some of the graphs deserve a raised eyebrow.

The clear wins
• Being physically active is linked to lower mortality across most activities
• Doing more than one type of activity adds benefit. Variety matters
• Walking shows the most consistent and robust relationship with lower mortality
• Resistance exercise is associated with lower mortality, too, with benefits appearing at relatively modest weekly doses

Where caution is needed
Some dose–response curves look strange. Cycling is a good example. The curve can look “W-shaped”. A little helps, a bit more harms, and then a lot helps again.

Does that make biological sense? Unlikely.

When most of the confidence interval sits below 1.0, apparent "harm" is far more likely due to sparse data and overfitting flexible curves than a true negative effect, especially when this contradicts well-powered dose–response studies.

Quick explainer
A MET is a way to describe energy cost relative to rest.
👉 ~5 MET-hours per week is roughly 40–45 minutes of easy cycling, ~75 minutes of brisk walking, or 1–2 short resistance training sessions.

Bottom line
- Look at the BIG picture - teh HR for multiple chronic diseases is down; if that were a drug we'd be clammering for it!
- Move more. Walk often. Lift something regularly. Mix it up.
- And don’t over-interpret squiggly curves when the biology and broader evidence are pointing in the same direction.

#ExerciseScience #ResistanceTraining #Walking #StrengthTraining #PhysicalActivity #Healthspan #MoveMore

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## Tags

movemore, walking, physicalactivity, resistancetraining, healthspan, strengthtraining, exercisescience

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