COVID-19: Regular exercise may cut COVID-19 death risk by a third, major study finds

Thirty minutes a day, five days a week, or 150 minutes a week of exercise that gets you at least slightly out of breath is needed.

Regular exercise reduces the chances of dying from infectious diseases such as COVID-19 by more than a third and makes people 31% less likely to catch the virus, a major study has found.

The world’s first study into the link between exercise and COVID-19 immunity suggested people need to be doing 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or 150 minutes a week of exercise that gets them at least slightly out of breath.

Recommended activities include walking, running, cycling and strengthening exercises.

Such physical activity can also make vaccines up to 40% more effective, an international team of researchers, led by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), said.

The scientists concluded that the recommended amount of exercise can result in a “31% decrease in the risk of infectious disease such as COVID-19, a 37% decrease in the risk of death as a consequence of infectious disease such as COVID-19 and an increase in the efficacy of vaccination against viral disease such as COVID-19”.

Project leader, GCU professor of health behaviour dynamics Sebastien Chastin, said they found that physical activity “strengthens the first line of defence of the human immune system and a higher concentration of immune cells”.

The “hugely significant” research “could help to cut the number of people contracting COVID-19 and dying from it”.

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