• Posted January 27, 2026

Exercise Fends Off Middle-Age Stress, Study Shows

People who don’t get enough exercise are more likely to be stressed out by middle age, a new study warns.

Middle-aged adults had a higher risk of chronic stress if they consistently failed to meet minimum recommended levels of physical activity, researchers will report in the February issue of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

“The results suggest that the importance of physical activity is not limited to individual life stages; rather, regular exercise throughout adulthood may protect the body from the harmful effects of long-term stress,” lead researcher Maija Korpisaari, a doctoral researcher in population health at the University of Oulu in Finland, said in a news release.

For the new study, researchers tracked more than 3,300 adults in Finland from age 31 to 46. All were participating in a long-term health research project.

Participants’ self-reported exercise levels were compared against World Health Organization guidelines, which recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week. 

Moderate activity can include walking briskly, slow bicycling, active yoga, doubles tennis, line dancing or general yard work, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vigorous exercise can include jogging, swimming laps, fast bicycling, heavy yard work and exercise classes like step aerobics or kickboxing.

People whose physical activity levels remained low from early adulthood had an 18% increased risk of chronic stress by middle age, results showed.

Likewise, people whose levels of physical activity declined from young adulthood to middle age had a 10% increased risk of chronic stress, researchers found.

Those who remained physically active – or became more active over time – had similarly lower levels of stress, researchers found.

“In terms of stress burden, both the amount of physical activity in youth and in adulthood are important,” Korpisaari said. “Regular physical activity in adulthood appears to help the body cope with stress even into midlife.”

However, more studies are needed to confirm this association and better understand how physical activity affects the body to lower stress, researchers said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on physical activity levels.

SOURCES: University of Oulu, news release, Jan. 23, 2026; Psychoneuroendocrinology, February 2026