Over the past few years, public health organizations have stressed the importance of adding strength training to your regular fitness routine. And now, a new study shows that there’s more to it than just getting toned: It may help you live longer.
That’s the major takeaway from a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. For the analysis, researchers looked at data from 16 studies of nearly 480,000 people between the ages of 18 and 98. In the studies, people either self-reported how much strength training they did or answered questions about it in interviews.
The researchers discovered that people who did 30 to 60 minutes of resistance-, strength-, or weight-training had a 10% to 20% lower risk of early death from all causes. They also had a lower risk of developing heart disease (46%) or cancer (28%). The researchers even discovered that people who did up to 60 minutes a week of muscle-strengthening activities had a lowered risk of developing diabetes.
The study raises a lot of questions about strength training and why it could have such an impact on your overall health. Here’s what you need to know.
What are the current strength training recommendations?
The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults do a combination of aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercises to improve their health.
That means doing at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, like biking, swimming, and walking, along with doing activities that make your muscles work harder than usual at least twice a week.
The guidelines specifically recommend that you work on all major muscle groups—your legs, hips, back, abs, chest, shoulders, and arms—during those strength-training sessions. That can include lifting weights, working with resistance bands, body-weight exercises like push-ups and sit-ups, heavy gardening, and some forms of yoga.
Why might strength training help you live longer?
Strength training has already been linked to health perks like better bone density and lean muscle mass, but study didn’t explore why strength training may lead to a longer life—it just found an association. Still, experts have some theories.
“Muscle strengthening is associated with preservation of skeletal muscle mass, which then plays an important role in glucose metabolism,” says Anton Bilchik, M.D., Ph.D., chief of medicine and director of the gastrointestinal research program at Saint John’s Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. (Glucose metabolism, in case you’re not familiar with it, is the process of your body turning glucose, aka sugar, into energy for your body.) “Abnormal glucose metabolism has been associated with an increase in cardiovascular disease and cancer,” Dr. Bilchik points out.
Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab and advisor to Promix Nutrition, also points out that strength training tends to reduce body fat and build lean muscle mass. “That will often make you healthier overall and help you have less body weight,” he says. On the flip side, having overweight or obesity puts you at risk of a slew of health conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, Matheny says.
Jim Pivarnik, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at Michigan State University, says that the importance of strength training is “no different” from other forms of exercise, like cardio. “Muscular strength and endurance are key to preventing muscle wasting and injuries due to degeneration of connective tissue and bone,” he says. The actual lowered risk of early death could be due to strength training (and other forms of exercise) improving the function of your heart and blood vessels, reducing cholesterol, and lowering blood pressure, he says.
Strength training, along with aerobic exercise, could “have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body which may be associated with a reduction in cardiovascular disease and cancer,” Dr. Bilchik says. But, he adds, this needs to be studied more.
How to do more strength training
If strength training isn't a part of your regular routine, Pivarnik recommends starting slow by adding things like light weights and resistance bands into your exercise routine.
Matheny suggests doing bodyweight exercises like planks, push-ups, and sit-ups. “It certainly doesn’t have to be complicated or even use equipment,” he says. You can also do things like step-ups onto stairs or a box for lower body strength training and squats while you watch TV, he says. And, as you get stronger, you can ramp things up by adding weights to the mix.
Matheny also points out that 30 minutes a week is pretty easily achievable: It’s just six minutes a day if you do it for five days a week.
Overall, experts say it’s clear that strength training has its health perks—but more research needs to be seen as to why, exactly, it may help you live longer.
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