Muscle Strength for a Long Life: 1–2 Hours of Resistance Exercise per Week

In this large prospective cohort study, Harvard researchers followed 147,374 people from three large US cohorts for up to 30 years to evaluate the effect of resistance exercise (weight training, resistance bands, weight machines, etc.) on the risk of death. A total of 35,798 deaths were recorded during follow-up. The researchers analyzed long-term exercise behavior using repeated measurements over the years, not just exercise habits at baseline.

People who did resistance exercise had a lower risk of death from all causes. The most pronounced benefit was seen in those who did 90–119 minutes of resistance exercise per week; in these people, the risk of death from all causes was 13% lower, the risk of cardiovascular death 19% lower, and the risk of death from neurological diseases 27% lower. However, no additional benefit was observed with more than 120 minutes of resistance exercise per week. The reduction in cancer mortality was evident only at lower levels of resistance exercise (1–59 minutes per week).

When aerobic exercise and resistance exercise were evaluated together, the lowest mortality risk was seen in those who did both high levels of aerobic activity and regular resistance exercise. In particular, among those who did 60–119 minutes of resistance exercise in addition to 30–45 MET-hours of aerobic activity per week, the risk of death was about 45% lower.

Conclusion

For a long life, not only walking or running but also muscle-strengthening exercises are important. The findings show that about 1–2 hours of resistance exercise per week, when combined with regular aerobic activity, may provide the greatest gains in health and life expectancy.

Source:

Zhang, Y., Lee, D. H., Rezende, L. F. M., Ma, Y., & Giovannucci, E. (2026). Long-term resistance training with all-cause and cause-specific mortality: Assessing dose-response and joint associations with aerobic physical activity. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 0, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2025-110503