Lifting weights once a week linked to reduced risk of premature death – new study

A new study suggest that adding weightlifting to your exercise regime, even in later life, reduces a risk of early death.

It is well known that aerobic exercise, such as running and cycling, can help you live longer, but less has been known about the effect of lifting weights on longevity. Now, results from a new study suggest that adding weightlifting to your exercise regime, even in later life, is a sensible thing to do if you want to avoid an early death.

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, aimed to find out if lifting weights was linked to a lower risk of death from any cause, either on its own or alongside moderate to vigorous exercise.

Moderate-intensity exercise was described as “activity where you worked up a light sweat or increased your breathing and heart rate to moderately high levels”, and vigorous activity as “activity strenuous enough to work up a sweat or increase your breathing and heart rate to very high levels”.

The researchers, led by a team from the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, analysed data on just under 100,000 men and women from ten cancer centres in the US. The participants had an average age of 71 and an average body-mass index of 27.8 (overweight). They followed the group for just shy of a decade, monitoring deaths from any cause, including heart disease.

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Around a quarter of people (23%) reported lifting weights, with 16% doing so regularly – between one and six times a week. And around a third (32%) either met or did more than the recommended amount of aerobic exercise.

Weightlifting and aerobic exercise were independently linked with a lower risk of premature death from any cause, except cancer.