Exercise helps you keep hold of your youthful ambition and sense of purpose as you age, Harvard study finds

• A consistent exercise routine may help cultivate a sense of purpose in life, study suggests.
• People with a sense of purpose are also more likely to exercise, according to the data.
• This can cause an "upward spiral" of benefits, especially for older adults, researchers said.

Working out can help improve your quality of life by making you feel more purposeful, particularly later in life, research suggests.

Older adults who exercised regularly were more likely to report a sense of purpose in their lives, according to a study published April 23 in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Warwick looked at data from more than 14,000 older, predominantly white Americans, including surveys about their daily routines, physical and mental health, and sense of purpose in life.

They found that exercise was linked to a stronger sense of purpose - people with a sense of purpose were more likely to exercise, but exercising more was linked to a better ability to develop and maintain that sense of purpose over time.

Sense of purpose can decline with age, but exercising may help

The researchers used surveys to assess sense of purpose, asking participants to rank their agreement with statements like, "My daily activities often seem trivial and unimportant," and "I have a good sense of direction and purpose in life."

They found that participants who remained active as they aged were more likely to report a strong sense of purpose, which often increased over time. That's in contrast to many older adults whose sense of purpose decline with age, along with their level of exercise.

"This made so much sense, given how much exercise routines organize our lives, giving us plans to look forward to and social communities to be a part of," Ayse Yemiscigil, lead author of the study and researcher on well-being at Harvard University, told Insider. "Not to mention the feeling that we get from having done something meaningful and worthwhile with our precious and scarce resource, time."

The study also found that the relationship between physical activity and sense of purpose seems to go both ways - people who had a sense of purpose in life in the first place were more likely to exercise. That could be because people who feel purposeful are more motivated to do things with long-term benefits, such as work out and priortize their health.

"When we have a sense of purpose in life, we have things we look forward to, so we have a generalized intention to live longer and be healthy and well to be present for and appreciate all those things," Yemiscigil said.

Based on these findings, encouraging people to exercise might be one strategy to help improve well-being and sense of purpose. But boosting people's sense of purpose through other means (such as social support) may also make them more likely to exercise consistently. This could create an "upward spiral" of helping people improve their lives, the researchers concluded.

"Next, we need to understand how we can promote these outcomes at scale. I am hopeful that in the near future, we will have a clearer picture about how we can design our organizations and society towards a greater sense of meaning and purpose for all," Yemiscigil said.

Exercise has other proven benefits for health, too

Previous research suggests that people who exercise regularly are less likely to suffer from mental illness and more likely to have better self-esteem and strong social connections.

That's in addition to other mental health perks of working out, such as boosting feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin in the brain, which can even reduce depression and anxiety.

There's also evidence that physical activity can help improve overall well-being and stave off chronic illness. It can help manage blood pressure, reducing the risk of cardiovascular illness, and keep you fit and healthy as you age. Working out also reduces inflammation and stress (both physical and mental).

Overall, there's great reasons to get your heart rate up, whether that's taking a brisk walk or lifting weights.