30–60 minutes of strength work per week, lower mortality risk
Muscle-strengthening activity was linked to lower risk of death and major disease, with the strongest effect when combined with aerobic activity.
What they studied
- Design
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohorts
- Data
- 16 cohort studies of adults
- Exposure
- Muscle-strengthening activity, independent of aerobic activity
- Outcomes
- Death, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes
What they found
- Strength activity was linked to 10–17% lower risk of death from any cause, cardiovascular disease, total cancer, diabetes and lung cancer.
- For death, cardiovascular disease and cancer the curve was J-shaped: the largest drop (about 10–20%) came at 30–60 minutes a week.
- For diabetes the benefit kept growing up to about 60 minutes a week.
- Strength plus aerobic activity beat doing neither for all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality.
How strong is the evidence
Meta-analysis
What this design cannot tell us:
- Cohort data: people who lift may differ in other ways.
- Activity was mostly self-reported.
- It is unclear whether more than an hour a week adds benefit or not.
What it means for your training
- Lift 2–3 times a week, 30–60 minutes in total is enough to capture most of the benefit.
- Don't skip the cardio: the combination did best.
Our summary of the published abstract. Read the original paper for full details.
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