(WIRED) — Jogging is good for you. So good, in fact, that it may extend your life by more than five years.
Jogging regularly increases the lifespan of men by about six years and women by about five and a half, according to data from a Danish study that has tracked the cardiovascular health of 20,000 people since 1976.
You don’t have to be Usain Bolt or Shalane Flanagan to enjoy the benefit, either. The data, being presented Saturday at the EuroPRevent 2012 meeting in Dublin, shows running as little as 20 minutes three times a week at a slow to moderate pace will do the trick.
“We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases longevity,” Dr. Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, said in a statement. “The good news is that you don’t actually need to do that much to reap the benefits.”