Running Just Once a Week Is Linked to a 27 Percent Drop in Risk of Early Death

A new study suggests that even the occasional light jog could help you live a longer, healthier life.

Runner’s World reports that researchers compiled data from 14 previously published studies to determine if running was associated with lower the risk of early death. Their findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, show that among a pooled sample of 232,149 people whose habits were monitored from 5.5 to 35 years, those who ran had a 27 percent lower risk of early death than those who didn’t.

Causes of death included cardiovascular disease, cancer, and everything in between—and while the study doesn’t guarantee that running will lower your risk of early death, it does show that there’s at least a link between the two.

Furthermore, the results suggest that you don’t have to be a particularly dedicated or serious runner in order to reap the health benefits. The researchers found that those who ran for less than 50 minutes a week, only once a week, or at speeds below 6 mph still ranked with more intense intense runners when it came to lower early death rates than non-runners.

“This finding may be motivating for those who cannot invest a lot of time in exercise, but it should definitely not discourage those who already engage in higher amounts of running,” Željko Pedišić, a professor at Victoria University’s Institute for Health and Sport and a co-author of the study, told Runner’s World.

In other words, there’s no reason that avid marathoners and competitive tag enthusiasts should lessen their running regimens—but if you spend most of your time sitting in front of your computer or television, you might want to consider adding a 45-minute neighborhood jog to your weekly to-do list. According to Pedišić, it could help keep high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer at bay.

And if you’re avoiding running to protect your knees, toenails, or something else, you probably don’t have to—read up on the truth behind eight common running myths here.