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According to experts, there is something you should be doing for 90 minutes every week in order to add years to your life.
This comes after new research, which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, revealed that there is a particular activity people can do which has the potential to lower the risk of premature death.
And it’s not something you need to spend countless hours working on to see some major health benefits.
Instead, the scientists believe that just an hour and a half of strength training every week could be life-changing.
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The report analysed data collected over 30 years from more than 147,000 people across three major US studies.
From there, the team of researchers concluded that the people who had completed between 90 and 119 minutes of strength training every week were less likely to die early compared to those who didn’t.
The benefits to this activity appeared even more significant when looking at specific health conditions, with a 19% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 27% lower risk of death from neurological conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
In the study, it stated: “Using repeated measures of resistance training over up to 30 years of follow-up, moderate long-term resistance training was associated with lower all-cause mortality, with lowest risks plateauing at around ≥120 min/week of resistance training.”
The study also found that the potential benefits of strength training were even greater among people who combined it with regular aerobic exercise.
Speaking to Healthline, Clarinda Hougen, MD, a primary care sports medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Orthopedics in Los Angeles who was not involved in the study, said: “It is important to engage in aerobic exercise that increases the heart rate. This new study finds another important aspect of exercise is strength training, including free weights, weight machines, and body weight exercises.
“By training and growing your muscle mass, you can improve your metabolic health and help reduce cardiovascular risk.”
If you’re looking to get started but don’t know where to begin, it’s important to note that strength training can take many forms.
Some people prefer to do gym-based workouts with dumbbells, barbells or resistance machines, while others choose bodyweight exercises such as lunges, squats and push-ups at home.
And it isn’t just longevity that’s a health benefit as experts also say that strength training can increase muscle strength, support joint health and even help you sleep better at night.
