Fit Psychologist

About an hour of strength training a week was linked to a 27 percent lower risk of dying early, in a review of 10 studies. Doing more than that brought no extra benefit. University of South Australia researchers pooled studies of adults who reported how much resistance training they did, meaning exercise like lifting weights or pushing against your own body weight, and tracked who died. Six of the studies fed the main estimate for deaths from any cause. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine published the review in 2022. Any amount of strength training went with a 15 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, a 19 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, and a 14 percent lower risk of dying from cancer. Four of the studies had enough detail to map the dose, and the biggest benefit, 27 percent, showed up at around 60 minutes a week. Past roughly an hour a week, the benefit shrank, and the authors say more research is needed on why. All of the studies were observational, so people who lift may also differ in diet, income, and other exercise habits. Across the pooled studies, the lowest risk of dying early sat at about 60 minutes of strength work a week. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3559…