What Strength Training Does for a Longer Life

This review pooled sixteen long-term studies to ask what muscle-strengthening activity, meaning resistance or weight training, does for health independent of aerobic exercise. People who did any regular strengthening had a 10 to 17 percent lower risk of dying early and of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and several cancers, with the greatest benefit at around thirty to sixty minutes a week. More was not always better, as the protection levelled off and, for some outcomes, appeared to dip at very high volumes. As these are observational studies, they show a strong association; they do not prove cause, and people who lift weights may differ in other healthy ways. For a woman in midlife, when muscle and bone quietly decline and menopause speeds the loss, it makes a compelling case that a modest amount of strength work is one of the higher-value things she can do for her long-term health.