New study finds 90 to 120 minutes of strength training a week boosts longevity

Most people are aware that staying active is good for health. Activities such as running, walking and cycling are linked with lower rates of many illnesses and a reduced risk of death.

What’s less widely understood is how strength training affects overall well-being.

A recent large-scale scientific study suggests that, when done in the right amounts, strength training could be tied to a wide range of health advantages.

In particular, completing 90 to 120 minutes of strength training each week was associated with longer life expectancy and a lower risk of dying from the leading causes.

These results add to the growing evidence that building and preserving muscle is about far more than looks. Muscle may also be important for long-term health and survival.

A 30-year look at exercise habits

Researchers tracked 147,374 adults for as long as 30 years. The participants came from three major long-running health studies, comprising 31,540 men and 115,834 women overall.

At two-year intervals, participants reported how much time they spent each week doing aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercise.

Aerobic activity included brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming, cycling, tennis, squash, strenuous housework and outdoor work, and climbing stairs.

Strength training was represented by activities such as resistance exercise and weight lifting.

At the start of the study, the average participant was 54 years old. Nearly half reported doing strength-training exercises.

Around 74% exceeded the minimum guideline of 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic physical activity.

The surprising number

Across the follow-up period, 35,798 participants died. When the researchers examined the data, a distinct pattern emerged.

Compared with people who did no strength training, those completing 90 to 119 minutes per week had a 13% lower risk of death from any cause.

The associations were stronger for particular conditions. That weekly amount of strength training was linked with a 19% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 27% lower risk of death from neurological disease.

Notably, doing more than 120 minutes of strength training per week did not seem to add further benefits for overall survival.

“Our findings on different dose-response relationships between long-term resistance training with all-cause and cause-specific mortality suggest that different amounts of resistance training may be needed to optimize benefits across outcomes,” noted the researchers.

Cancer risk showed a different pattern

The researchers also observed a link between strength training and lower cancer mortality, although the pattern was not the same as for heart and neurological outcomes.

A lower cancer risk appeared only at smaller amounts of strength training.

Those doing one to 29 minutes each week had a 21% lower risk of death from cancer, while people completing 30 to 59 minutes per week had an 18% lower risk.

At higher levels of strength training, the researchers did not find a comparable benefit.

As this was an observational study, it cannot demonstrate that strength training directly caused these differences; it shows only that the factors were associated.

The power of combining exercise types

Although strength training on its own was linked with benefits, the clearest results were seen when it was paired with aerobic exercise.

Relative to people who did under 7.5 MET hours of aerobic activity per week and did no strength training, individuals doing one to 59 minutes or 60 to 119 minutes of strength training alone showed a 7% to 11% lower risk of death.

Aerobic exercise by itself was associated with a 26% to 43% lower risk of death at volumes above 7.5 MET hours per week.

Consistency is key

The lowest risks were observed among people who regularly did both kinds of exercise.

Participants who completed 30 to 44 MET hours of aerobic exercise along with 60 to 119 minutes of strength training each week had a 45% lower risk of death.

For those performing more than 45 MET hours of aerobic activity each week, the risk was 53% to 58% lower, regardless of how much strength training they did.

“The observed pattern that adding resistance training further reduced mortality risk across all levels of aerobic activity up to 45 MET hours/week supports current recommendations encouraging both types of activity to maximise mortality benefits,” noted the researchers.

Why muscle matters as people age

In recent years, scientists have placed increasing emphasis on muscle health.

Muscles help people get around, maintain balance, metabolise effectively and manage everyday tasks independently.

With advancing age, loss of muscle mass tends to accelerate. This physiological change has been linked with frailty, falls, poorer quality of life and a higher risk of disease.

Muscle-building exercise can counteract this decline. It can improve bone density and strengthen joints, while also helping to manage blood glucose.

Together, these effects may help explain the positive association between resistance exercise and longevity.

Broader implications of the study

The researchers highlighted several limitations. Exercise levels were self-reported rather than measured directly.

The analysis also excluded certain strengthening activities, including Pilates and callisthenics.

In addition, the researchers did not have data on workout intensity or the duration of individual sessions, both of which might have affected the findings.

Because the research was observational, it cannot prove cause and effect.

Even so, the results point to a straightforward takeaway: a modest weekly dose of strength training-particularly when combined with regular aerobic activity-may deliver meaningful long-term health benefits.

For many adults, the apparent sweet spot is roughly an hour and a half to two hours per week.

The full study was published in British Journal of Sports Medicine.