{"id":477616,"date":"2026-06-05T11:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/477616\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:46:17","slug":"strength-training-sweet-spot-for-longevity-may-be-just-90-minutes-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/477616\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength Training \u2018Sweet Spot\u2019 for Longevity May Be Just 90 Minutes a Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just 90 minutes a week of strength training<\/a> may go a long way toward helping you live longer.<\/p>\n

A new study spanning three decades found that around 90 to 120 minutes of weekly resistance training may be the \u201csweet spot\u201d for lowering the risk of dying from heart disease, neurological disease, or any cause. These longevity benefits<\/a> leveled off after two hours per week, which suggests that more time in the gym isn\u2019t necessarily better.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/p>\n

\u201cOne practical message is that people do not need to spend hours in the gym,\u201d says professor Ulrik Wisl\u00f8ff, PhD<\/a>, head of the Cardiac Exercise Research Group (CERG)<\/a> at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Dr. Wisl\u00f8ff<\/a> researches the effects of exercise on optimal health, but was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/p>\n

\u201cA few minutes of functional strength training per day appears sufficient to capture most of the mortality benefits observed in this study,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Study Tracked Fitness Training Habits for Up to 30 Years<\/p>\n

The study analyzed data from nearly 150,000 adults from three long-running U.S. health studies. Participants were 54 on average when they joined, and researchers followed them for up to 30 years. Subjects reported in every two years on their strength training and aerobic exercise habits.<\/p>\n

Researchers defined strength training as exercises using weights or body weight \u2014 things like pushups, squats, lunges, and traditional weightlifting. Aerobic exercise included cardio activities like walking<\/a>, running, swimming<\/a>, cycling, tennis, and stair climbing.<\/p>\n

Over the study period, researchers recorded about 36,000 deaths and examined whether mortality risk was linked to long-term strength training habits, both alone and in combination with aerobic activity.<\/p>\n

Strength Training 90 to 120 Minutes a Week Tied the Lowest Risk of Death<\/p>\n

After accounting for factors that could influence health outcomes, researchers found that adults who averaged 90 to 119 minutes of strength training per week had a 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause compared with those who did no strength training at all.<\/p>\n

The same amount of weekly strength training was also tied to:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor people who are less active, the key message is that small amounts can still matter. Building a routine gradually may be more important than trying to do a lot at once,\u201d say study authors Edward Giovannucci, MD<\/a>, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology, and Yiwen Zhang, PhD<\/a>, postdoctoral research fellow, both at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adding Cardio Enhanced the Longevity Benefits<\/p>\n

Participants who regularly combined cardio and strength training<\/a> experienced some of the lowest mortality risks observed in the study \u2014\u00a0up to 45 percent lower than those who did neither activity.<\/p>\n

For cancer risk in particular, the benefits appeared strongest at lower levels of strength training plus cardio. Participants who got 1 to 29 minutes of weekly strength training in addition to cardio had a 21 percent lower risk of cancer death, while those who got 30 to 59 minutes had an 18 percent lower risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people assume that more is always better, but biological systems rarely behave that way,\u201d Wisl\u00f8ff says. \u201cFor health and longevity, moderate amounts of exercise often provide most of the benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

These findings also highlight the importance of both muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness for long-term health, Wisl\u00f8ff says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of regular aerobic exercise and moderate amounts of strength training appears to provide substantial protection against premature death. This supports the idea that aerobic fitness and muscle strength are complementary rather than competing health attributes.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the addition of aerobic activity increased the longevity benefits of strength training<\/a>, there wasn\u2019t any further benefit for people who did resistance training for more than two hours a week. This reinforces a \u201cplateau effect\u201d seen in other research, where additional exercise beyond a certain point may still improve fitness and strength, but doesn\u2019t necessarily translate into lower mortality risk.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/p>\n

This Study Has Some Limitations<\/p>\n

While the study was large and assessed long-term physical activity behaviors rather than relying on a single snapshot in time \u2014\u00a0it was observational, so it can\u2019t prove that strength training directly caused the lower mortality risk.<\/p>\n

Participants were mostly white middle-age and older healthcare professionals, which means the findings may not apply to other groups. Finally, the study relied on participants self-reporting how much exercise they got, which can introduce errors.<\/p>\n

You Don\u2019t Need a Gym Membership to Live Longer<\/p>\n

Resistance training doesn\u2019t have to involve substantial financial investment, says Gregore Mielke, PhD<\/a>, a behavioral epidemiologist at the University of Queensland\u2019s School of Public Health in Brisbane, Australia, who has researched the link between exercise and mortality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key is to find approaches that are meaningful, practical, and adaptable to individual circumstances,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t feel like you have to go into the gym, or even invest in weights. Everyday items like food cans, filled water bottles, or bags loaded with books can all be used for simple resistance exercises at home.<\/p>\n

You also don\u2019t have to get all 90 minutes in one go. You could do strength training 30 to 40 minutes three times per week, or 15 to 20 minutes most days of the week.<\/p>\n

For many people, starting at home with body-weight exercises<\/a>, resistance bands<\/a>, light weights, or even common household objects may be a feasible and approachable way to begin, the Harvard researchers say: \u201cThe key point is not the location, but whether the activity challenges the muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just 90 minutes a week of strength training may go a long way toward helping you live longer.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[589,163,85,46],"class_list":["post-477616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}