A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine finds that fitting 90 minutes to two hours of weight training into your weekly routine lowers the chance of an early death by 13%.
When it comes to conditions like heart disease and stroke, it’s 19%, and for neurological disease, it’s 27%.
Good examples of weight training include squats, lunges, and dumbbell work.
The research by Sport England said that when combined with aerobic exercise such as cycling or jogging, it could prevent 3.3 million cases of chronic illness a year – saving the NHS billions of pounds.
Tom Burton, the organisation’s strategic lead for health and wellbeing policy, said: “Strength-based physical activity is a powerful tool, particularly in support of healthy ageing – helping prevent or delay poor health, keeping us mobile and independent and easing pressures on overstretched health and care services.”
More than 147,000 people, most of them women, took part in the 30-year study, which quizzed participants every two years about how much strength and aerobic exercise they did.
The lowest risks were observed among those people with both high aerobic activity and strength training levels, with risks dropping by up to 58% among the most active.
NHS guidance recommends adults do strength activities that work all the major muscle groups on at least two days a week – that covers legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.
It also suggests at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week (think brisk walking) or 75 minutes at vigorous intensity (think jogging or sports like tennis). (Sky News)