The study drew on three long-running US studies<\/a> that followed nearly 150,000 nurses and other health professionals for up to 30 years. <\/p>\n Every couple of years, participants reported how much time they spent on strength training and aerobic exercise such as walking, cycling and swimming. <\/p>\n Over the three decades, almost 36,000 of them died, which let the researchers track how muscle-strengthening activity related to the risk of dying early.<\/p>\n They found a clear sweet spot. <\/p>\n People who did around 90 to 120 minutes of strength training a week \u2013 or roughly an hour and a half to two hours \u2013 had about a 13% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who did none.<\/p>\n The benefit of strength was strongest for two of our biggest killers<\/a>: a 19% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (which includes heart disease and stroke) and a 27% lower risk of dying from neurological conditions, mainly dementia.<\/p>\n Interestingly, more wasn’t necessarily better. Beyond about two hours of weightlifting a week, risk didn’t fall any further.<\/p>\n The lowest risk of all was seen in people who paired strength training with regular aerobic exercise \u2013 measured across everyday activities such as walking, jogging, cycling and swimming. <\/p>\n Doing at least the recommended amount of moderate aerobic activity (around 150 minutes a week) was on its own linked to between a 26% and 43% lower risk of death.<\/p>\n But combining plenty of aerobic activity with one to two hours of strength training brought the risk down furthest of all \u2013 by around 45%. Aerobic exercise still did most of the heavy lifting, but the two clearly work best together, not as rivals.<\/p>\n There was one exception to the pattern: for cancer<\/a> deaths, only smaller amounts of strength training (under an hour a week) were linked to lower risk.<\/p>\n So why would weightlifting help us live longer? The answer lies in muscle \u2013 and what muscle actually does, beyond simply helping us move around.<\/p>\n Muscle, specifically the skeletal muscle we build through resistance training, is one of the body’s most metabolically active tissues<\/a>. After a meal, it’s where most of the sugar, or glucose, in our blood is sent. <\/p>\n Insulin, the hormone released when we eat, signals muscle to absorb glucose from the bloodstream, and it mops up around 80% of it<\/a> \u2013 either burning it for energy or storing it as glycogen, a ready fuel reserve, rather than letting it circulate or be stored as fat.<\/p>\n Keeping muscle strong and plentiful therefore helps the body manage blood sugar<\/a> and protects against type 2 diabetes<\/a>, itself a major driver of heart disease and early death<\/a>.<\/p>\n Muscle is also an organ in its own right. <\/p>\n When muscles contract, they release hormone-like messengers called myokines<\/a> into the bloodstream. These help to dampen the chronic, low-grade inflammation<\/a> that quietly underlies heart disease, diabetes<\/a> and many cancers.<\/p>\n Myokines also allow muscle to communicate<\/a> with the liver, fat tissue, blood vessels, bone and even the brain. <\/p>\n They send out signals that influence how those organs burn fuel, control blood flow and stay healthy. <\/p>\n In effect, every time we use our muscles, they release a burst of chemical signals that benefit the rest of the body.<\/p>\n The heart and circulatory system benefit too. Over time, regular resistance training can help lower blood pressure and keep arteries flexible rather than stiff<\/a>, which protects against cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n Strength itself is also a remarkably good barometer of health. <\/p>\n Grip strength \u2013 how hard you can squeeze with your hand \u2013 is widely used as an indicator of whole-body strength. In one large international study, grip strength predicted the risk of dying early even more accurately than blood pressure<\/a>. <\/p>\n Stronger muscles also mean fewer falls and fractures<\/a>, more independence in later life and less frailty as we age \u2013 all of which shape how long, and how well, we live.<\/p>\n The link between strength training and brain health is newer and less certain, but plausible. Resistance training appears to drive beneficial changes in the brain<\/a>. <\/p>\n The same improvements in blood sugar and blood vessels that protect the heart are also tied to a lower risk of dementia<\/a>. <\/p>\n That may help explain the 27% drop in deaths from neurological disease the study found.<\/p>\n It’s worth being clear about what this study can and can’t tell us. It was observational, so although it can show a strong link between strength training and a longer life, it can’t prove that one directly causes the other.<\/p>\n People who lift weights may be healthier in other ways, though the researchers adjusted for many such factors, including diet, smoking and aerobic activity. Strength training was also self-reported, and the study couldn’t capture how hard people trained.<\/p>\n The encouraging message is that the amount linked to a longer life is genuinely achievable. <\/p>\n Related: Your Grip Strength Says a Lot About How Long You Might Live<\/a><\/p>\n You don’t need a gym membership or a heavy barbell, either. <\/p>\n Two short sessions a week where you work all the major muscle groups<\/a>, alongside some aerobic exercise each day, appears to be plenty when it comes to improving your overall health and longevity.<\/p>\n Jack McNamara<\/a>, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology, University of East London<\/a><\/p>\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strength training has long been seen as something you mainly do to build muscle or look good. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,407,84],"class_list":["post-757915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782298825_802_0.jpg\")
frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n![\"Close-up](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Man-Arm-Holding-Dumbbell.jpg\")
Muscle has many important roles in the body. (Do\u011fu Tuncer\/Pexels<\/a>)Muscle and mortality<\/p>\n![\"Subscribe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FOMO-1200x628-_Dont-miss-the-next-breakthrough_-cosmic-colourful-642x336.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/weightlifting-woman-tattoos.jpg\")
Why would weightlifting help us live longer? The answer lies in muscle. (MoMo Productions\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Exercising](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ExercisingPushupsWithDogAsWeight642-533x415.jpg\")
You don’t need a gym membership or a heavy barbell. (grki\/Canva)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782298830_30_count.gif\")
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