A 30-year study of nearly 150,000 adults found that roughly 90 to 120 minutes of strength training per week was linked with a 13% reduced risk of premature death from any cause, according to research published June 2 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study, which pooled data from three long-running cohorts—the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, the Nurses’ Health Study, and the Nurses’ Health Study II—tracked 147,374 participants over up to three decades. Researchers periodically asked participants about their weekly resistance training and aerobic exercise duration via questionnaires, then analyzed mortality outcomes for the 35,798 deaths that occurred during the study period.
Adults who performed strength training activities such as pushups, squats, lunges, or weightlifting for 90 to 120 minutes per week also saw a 19% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 27% lower risk of death from neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, compared with those who did no strength training. Importantly, doing more than 120 minutes per week did not provide additional mortality benefits, suggesting a clear ceiling effect.
The research also found that participants who combined both strength and aerobic training—such as walking, running, swimming, cycling, or tennis—had among the lowest mortality risks in the study, with up to 45% lower risk compared with those who did neither kind of training. This finding underscores that while strength training alone delivers substantial longevity gains, pairing it with aerobic exercise amplifies the protective effect.
Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan and a co-author of the study, emphasized the accessibility of the findings. “For people who are less active, the key message is that small amounts can still matter,” Giovannucci said. “Building a routine gradually may be more important than trying to do a lot at once.” He noted that resistance training can be done at home using weights, resistance bands, or everyday items like food cans and filled water bottles, and can be completed in shorter sessions spread across the week.
The mechanism behind strength training’s longevity benefits involves multiple physiological pathways. Building and maintaining muscle mass improves metabolic health, reduces cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, and helps preserve bone density—all of which contribute to longer, healthier lives. The study’s findings align with prior research showing that muscle strength is independently associated with reduced mortality risk, even among people who don’t meet guideline-recommended aerobic activity levels.
The study’s limitations include its reliance on self-reported exercise data, the exclusion of some strength-training activities such as Pilates and calisthenics, and a lack of detail on exercise intensity or session duration. However, the large sample size, long follow-up period, and consistent findings across multiple independent cohorts strengthen confidence in the results.
Sources
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — Published the study findings on June 9, 2026, confirming 90–120 minutes weekly strength training linked to 13% lower all-cause mortality risk, 19% lower cardiovascular death risk, and 27% lower neurological disease death risk.
- Healthline — Reported the study details, including the 30-year timeframe, 147,374 participants, and the finding that benefits plateau beyond 120 minutes per week.
- British Journal of Sports Medicine — Published the original peer-reviewed study on June 2, 2026, titled “Long-term resistance training with all-cause and cause-specific mortality: assessing dose-response and joint associations with aerobic physical activity.”
