{"id":481569,"date":"2026-06-17T08:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481569\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:04:09","slug":"this-exercise-sweet-spot-is-linked-to-greater-longevity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481569\/","title":{"rendered":"This exercise \u2018sweet spot\u2019 is linked to greater longevity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The links were especially strong for cardiovascular disease and neurological conditions. The data showed that people who lifted weights, no matter how infrequently, were less likely to die from heart attacks or Alzheimer\u2019s disease <\/a>compared with people who did no resistance training.<\/p>\n

But the scientists also zeroed in on the \u201cGoldilocks\u201d level of weekly lifting \u2013 the number of minutes per week that isn\u2019t too little or too much, but just right \u2013 associated with the greatest longevity benefit overall, whether people also exercised aerobically or not.<\/p>\n

They seem to have found it.<\/p>\n

Links between longevity and lifting haven\u2019t been studied much<\/p>\n

For decades, researchers have been studying the precise amounts of aerobic exercise we\u2019re likely to need to live long, healthy lives. The scientific consensus, quantified in the current physical activity recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services, is at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise, such as speedy walking.<\/p>\n

Smaller amounts of aerobic activity, even a few minutes a day, likewise have been associated in recent studies with greater longevity and health, especially if the effort involved is challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut less is known about how resistance exercise relates to long-term mortality risks,\u201d said Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and senior author of the new study, \u201cespecially at different amounts and combinations with aerobic activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

HHS recommendations suggest two days a week of some kind of muscle-strengthening exercise but provide no other details.<\/p>\n

Studying the exercise habits of almost 150,000 people<\/p>\n

So Giovannucci and his colleagues decided to mine the available data, hunting for the potentially most effective \u201cdose\u201d of strengthening exercise for longevity.<\/a><\/p>\n

Conveniently, Harvard oversees a number of large studies and databases that have gathered health information from nurses and other healthcare workers for the past 30 years.<\/p>\n

Participants in these studies have repeatedly filled out detailed questionnaires about their exercise habits over the years, including how many minutes each week they ran, walked, cycled, swam or otherwise worked out aerobically, as well as how often they lifted weights (focusing, in particular, on using weight machines and free weights).<\/p>\n

The researchers pulled data for 147,374 of these men and women, most of them middle-aged when they joined the studies, and cross-checked them with death records for the following 30 years or so.<\/p>\n

Then, using complex models of how different types and amounts of activity related to lifespans, they analysed the intersections of exercise and mortality.<\/p>\n

\"LiftingLifting weights 90 to 120 minutes a week has been linked to lower death risk. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n

Finding the sweet spot for lifting<\/p>\n

The sweet spot for weekly resistance training \u2013 the amount associated with the maximum longevity benefit per minute \u2013 was easy to detect.<\/p>\n

It came at anywhere between 90 and 119 minutes per week of lifting.<\/p>\n

Lifting for that much time each week was linked to a 13% lower risk of dying prematurely from any cause and a 19% lower risk of dying from heart disease.<\/p>\n

Somewhat surprisingly, the risks of dying from neurological diseases, such as dementia<\/a>, were improved the most, declining by 27%.<\/p>\n

Smaller amounts of resistance exercise, including even a few minutes a week, likewise were linked to longer lives, though the declines in mortality risk were slighter.<\/p>\n

After 119 weekly minutes, any gains flattened; lifting more didn\u2019t raise mortality risks but didn\u2019t further improve them, either.<\/p>\n

Doing both aerobic and resistance exercise was best<\/p>\n

Perhaps most important, the gains in lifespan associated with lifting<\/a> came on top of any that people might be getting from aerobic exercise, since the researchers controlled for that kind of exercise. In effect, the gains were additive, and doing both was best. \u201cPeople who combined aerobic exercise with resistance training generally had the lowest mortality risk,\u201d said Yiwen Zhang, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who led the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven its large sample size and long-term follow-up period, with repeated measures of resistance-training behaviours, the findings are convincing,\u201d said David Scott, an exercise scientist at Deakin University in Australia who studies exercise and health but wasn\u2019t involved in this research.<\/p>\n

The study doesn\u2019t show, though, how best to use the 90 to 119 minutes of lifting each week. Would three 30-minute workouts or 15 minutes a day be better for longevity than one 90-minute session? Is it better to lift heavier weights than light ones? Could push-ups and other calisthenics be just as effective as machine-based moves? \u201cFuture research is certainly needed\u201d to answer those questions, Giovannucci said.<\/p>\n

\"CombiningCombining weights with cardio may deliver greater longevity benefits. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n

The study also doesn\u2019t explain how weight training reduces the risk of dying prematurely. But other research suggests that being strong improves mobility and helps prevent falls with age. Muscle mass is beneficial, too, for lifelong metabolic health, and resistance exercise probably improves brain health by releasing substances into the bloodstream that travel to the brain and jump-start processes there that help keep it youthful.<\/p>\n

But even with the study\u2019s many outstanding questions, its findings keep its authors lifting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing so for the past 25 years,\u201d Giovannucci said, \u201ctypically two to three times a week, about 45 minutes each time,\u201d landing squarely in the study\u2019s sweet spot.<\/p>\n

Zhang is still working her way there, she said, lifting lightly about twice a week, for about an hour in total. But, given the results of her research, \u201cI\u2019m aiming to build up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The links were especially strong for cardiovascular disease and neurological conditions. The data showed that people who lifted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[8347,5660,17094,8278,634,3248,565,71,48879,134,2862,5838,8454,185,7055,3698,5829,5978,19475,111,139,69,384,242050,15412,11561,383,16800,1961,61,8812,686],"class_list":["post-481569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-alzheimers","tag-attacks","tag-avoid","tag-conditions","tag-death","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-from","tag-greater","tag-health","tag-heart","tag-help","tag-including","tag-is","tag-linked","tag-longevity","tag-many","tag-might","tag-minutes","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-pinpoints","tag-spot","tag-strength","tag-study","tag-sweet","tag-this","tag-to","tag-training","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}