For years, health experts have emphasized the importance of staying physically active.
Most people immediately think about walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming when they hear the word exercise.
These activities improve heart health and help control weight. However, scientists are increasingly discovering that building and maintaining muscle may be just as important for healthy aging.
Strength training is any activity that challenges muscles to work harder than usual. This includes lifting weights, using resistance machines, performing body-weight exercises, or working with resistance bands.
While many people associate strength training with athletes or bodybuilders, it can benefit almost everyone, including older adults.
Muscles do much more than help people move. Healthy muscles support balance, protect joints, improve metabolism, and help people remain independent as they age.
Muscle strength becomes especially important later in life because natural age-related muscle loss can make everyday activities increasingly difficult.
A new study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined how strength training affects long-term survival.
Researchers analyzed information from three large health studies that followed more than 147,000 adults for up to three decades.
Participants reported their exercise habits every two years. Researchers gathered information about both aerobic exercise and strength training.
Aerobic exercise included activities such as brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, and tennis. Strength training included lifting weights and body-weight exercises such as squats, lunges, and push-ups.
During the study period, more than 35,000 participants died. This gave researchers an opportunity to examine how different exercise habits influenced long-term health outcomes.
One of the most interesting findings was that the relationship between strength training and health was not completely linear. People who performed around 90 to 120 minutes of strength training each week appeared to receive the greatest overall benefit.
Compared with people who performed no strength training, those in this range had a significantly lower risk of death. They were also less likely to die from heart disease and neurological conditions.
However, increasing strength training beyond about two hours per week did not produce additional reductions in mortality risk.
This finding may be reassuring for many people. It suggests that achieving meaningful health benefits does not require spending countless hours lifting weights. Roughly 15 to 20 minutes per day or two to three moderate sessions each week may be enough.
The study also found that smaller amounts of strength training may still provide important benefits. Even participants who performed relatively little resistance exercise showed lower risks of certain causes of death, particularly cancer-related mortality.
Perhaps the most powerful result involved combining strength training with aerobic activity. While strength training alone was beneficial, aerobic exercise produced even larger reductions in mortality risk. However, when the two were combined, the benefits became even greater.
Participants who regularly performed both aerobic exercise and strength training had the lowest overall risk of death. In some groups, mortality risk was more than 50 percent lower compared with people who performed little or no exercise.
Scientists believe the combination works because the two forms of exercise affect the body in different ways.
Aerobic exercise strengthens the heart and lungs, improves circulation, and helps control blood pressure. Strength training preserves muscle, supports metabolism, improves physical function, and helps maintain bone health.
Together, they provide a broader range of protection than either activity alone.
The study has limitations that should be considered. Researchers relied on self-reported exercise data, which may not always be precise.
They also lacked detailed information about workout intensity and session structure. Furthermore, because this was an observational study, it cannot prove cause and effect.
Despite these limitations, the study’s long follow-up period and large participant group make the findings particularly valuable. Few exercise studies have been able to monitor so many people over such a long period of time.
From a practical perspective, the message is simple. People do not need to choose between cardio and strength training.
Both appear important for long-term health. For adults who already walk, cycle, or perform other aerobic activities, adding one to two hours of strength training each week may provide additional protection against disease and premature death.
The study also highlights an encouraging idea: modest, consistent exercise habits can produce substantial benefits.
Many people avoid strength training because they believe it requires special equipment, a gym membership, or intense workouts. In reality, simple exercises performed regularly may be enough to improve health.
Overall, the findings strongly support current public health recommendations that encourage adults to combine aerobic exercise with muscle-strengthening activities.
While future research will continue to refine the details, this study suggests that about 90 to 120 minutes of strength training per week may be a practical target for people seeking a longer and healthier life.
If you care about health, please read studies that vitamin D can help reduce inflammation, and vitamin K could lower your heart disease risk by a third.
For more health information, please see recent studies about new way to halt excessive inflammation, and results showing foods that could cause inflammation.
Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine study.
