Live longer and fend off diseases with 30 to 60 minutes of weight training weekly, study finds from usa today

Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY

March 5, 2022·2 min read

Spending just 30 to 60 minutes each week on muscle strengthening exercises can not only make you stronger, but also likely add years to your life, new research suggests.

Strength-building exercise has long been recommended by experts as life-enhancing. And there's been a growing body of research suggesting even a little exercise helps fend off disease and increases life spans.

This new analysis of 16 exercise studies found people who did 30 to 60 minutes of resistance exercises weekly had a lower risk of getting heart disease, diabetes or cancer, as well as 10% to 20% lower risk of early death from all causes, according to the study published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

If one person combines 30 to 60 minutes of strengthening exercises with any amount of aerobic activity, they can see a 40% lower risk of premature death, a 46% lower incidence of heart disease and a 28% lower chance of dying from cancer, researchers found.

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The published research analyzed 16 previous studies that pulled data from about 480,000 participants, ages 18 to 98, and most lived in the U.S. Results were calculated from the participants' self-reported activity.

"Many previous studies showed a favorable influence of muscle-strengthening exercises on noncommunicable diseases and early death risk," the study's first author Haruki Momma, a lecturer in the department of medicine and science in sports and exercise at Tohoku University in Japan, told CNN. "We could expect our findings to some extent because this study was planned to integrate previous findings."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Health study: Live longer by weight training 30 to 60 minutes weekly