Adding strength training to aerobic exercise may fuel longevity

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Heart-pumping exercise goes a long way toward achieving robust health, but adding strength training to your regimen may be key to living even longer. That’s the finding of a large study published online Oct. 17, 2022, by JAMA Network Open. Researchers evaluated physical activity reported by more than 115,000 people ages 65 and older as part of the ongoing National Health Interview Survey. They compared exercise data with deaths over an average of nearly eight years. Regardless of how much aerobic exercise they did, participants who did strength training two to six times weekly were less likely to die from any cause during the study period compared with those who did less strength training. People who did at least two sessions of strength training as well as 2.5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity each week were 30% less likely to die during that time. The study was observational and did not prove conclusively that doing strength training or aerobic exercise caused people to live longer. Strength training includes activities such as lifting weights, using resistance bands, doing push-ups or sit-ups, or digging in the garden.

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