When people think about exercise for a longer, healthier life, cardio often gets most of the attention. Walking, running, and cycling are well known for supporting cardiovascular health. But research suggests there is another important piece of the longevity puzzle: strength training.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined the relationship between muscle-strengthening activities and the risk of premature death and several major chronic diseases. The findings make a strong case for adding resistance training to your weekly routine—and suggest you may not need hours in the gym to experience meaningful benefits.
What Did the Study Find?
Researchers analyzed 16 prospective cohort studies involving adults aged 18 and older. They looked at muscle-strengthening activities and their relationship with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Overall, people who participated in muscle-strengthening activities had a 10–17% lower risk of all-cause mortality and several major non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, total cancer, and diabetes.
For all-cause mortality specifically, strength training was associated with approximately a 15% lower risk of death from any cause compared with doing no muscle-strengthening activity.
That’s a compelling reason to make strength training part of your regular routine.
How Much Strength Training Do You Need?
One of the most interesting findings was that significant health benefits were associated with relatively small amounts of weekly strength training.
The researchers found that the largest risk reductions—approximately 10–20%—were associated with around 30–60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity per week.
The lowest estimated risk for all-cause mortality occurred around 40 minutes per week, while cardiovascular disease risk was lowest around 60 minutes per week and total cancer risk around 30 minutes per week.
That doesn’t mean you should stop exercising once you reach 60 minutes. These studies were observational, meaning they identified associations rather than proving that a specific number of minutes directly causes a longer life.
Instead, the findings highlight something encouraging: you don’t need to spend endless hours in the gym for strength training to potentially support your long-term health.
Strength Training Is About More Than Muscle
Strength training is often associated with building muscle, lifting heavier weights, or improving appearance. But its benefits go much further.
Maintaining strength can help support your ability to perform everyday movements such as squatting, carrying groceries, climbing stairs, getting off the floor, and participating in recreational activities.
As we age, maintaining strength and physical capacity can become increasingly important for staying active and independent.
The study also found that muscle-strengthening activity was associated with a 17% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 17% lower incidence of diabetes.
Skeletal muscle plays an important role in metabolic health, which is another reason resistance training should be viewed as more than simply a way to change how your body looks.
Strength Training + Cardio May Be Even Better
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that strength training and cardio shouldn’t be viewed as competitors.
They complement each other.
The researchers found that people who participated in both muscle-strengthening and aerobic activity had lower risks of all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and total cancer mortality compared with people who did neither.
For all-cause mortality, combining muscle-strengthening and aerobic exercise was associated with a 40% lower risk compared with doing neither type of activity.
A balanced weekly routine might therefore include strength training alongside walking, running, cycling, recreational sports, or fitness classes that increase your heart rate.
You don’t have to choose between being “strong” and being “fit.” Ideally, your routine helps develop both.
What Does This Mean for Your Training?
If you’re currently doing little or no resistance training, you don’t need to immediately start working out five days per week.
A great place to start is with two full-body strength workouts each week, focusing on fundamental movement patterns such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, carrying, and core exercises.
Your exercises, weights, repetitions, and overall training volume should be adjusted according to your experience, mobility, fitness level, and goals.
At BPM Fitness Centre in Victoria, BC, our Personal Training and Group Fitness programs are designed around this idea: training should be progressive, sustainable, and appropriate for the individual.
You don’t have to train like an athlete to benefit from getting stronger. You need a program that challenges you appropriately and that you can consistently return to week after week.
Strength Is an Investment in Your Future
We often associate strength training with short-term goals: getting stronger, improving athletic performance, or preparing for an event.
But strength training can also be viewed as an investment in long-term health, physical capacity, and longevity.
And perhaps the most encouraging message from this research is that meaningful benefits were associated with relatively modest amounts of weekly strength training.
You don’t need endless workouts. You need consistency.
At BPM Fitness Centre, our goal is to help people of different ages and fitness levels become stronger, move better, and build sustainable exercise habits.
Because strength training isn’t only about what you can lift today.
It’s about what your body is capable of doing for years to come.
References
Momma H, Kawakami R, Honda T, Sawada SS. Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2022;56(13):755–763.
