Lifting Weights Less Than 2 Hours Weekly Linked To Lower Death Risk From Heart Disease, Dementia

You May Not Need to Lift as Much as You Think to Lower Your Mortality Risk

Most people pick up weights to look better or get stronger. But a new study tracking nearly 150,000 Americans for up to three decades found that a moderate amount of weekly weightlifting may be linked to a lower risk of dying over time, with some of the strongest associations seen for heart disease and neurological disease.

Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the research followed 147,374 participants across three large, long-running American health studies. Over up to 30 years, researchers tracked how much time participants spent lifting weights and compared that against death records. People who did roughly 90 to 119 minutes of resistance training per week were significantly less likely to die from any cause than those who did none. That is less than two hours of lifting per week, a target most adults could realistically hit.

What sets this study apart is its methodology. Rather than asking people once about their exercise habits and assuming nothing changed, researchers tracked participants’ activity repeatedly over time, in some cases every two years. That approach gives the findings considerably more credibility than many previous studies on the subject.

Resistance Training’s Sweet Spot Is Less Than You Think

Among the study’s 35,798 documented deaths, the data revealed something counterintuitive: pushing past 120 minutes of resistance training per week produced no additional survival benefit. More lifting, beyond that point, did not mean a longer life.

For heart disease death, people logging 90 to 119 minutes weekly had a 19% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes compared to non-lifters, even after accounting for aerobic exercise. For neurological disease deaths, mostly dementia-related in this study, that window was linked to a 27% lower risk. Researchers extended the gap between exercise measurements and death records to 8 and 12 years to reduce the possibility that sick people had simply stopped exercising before they died, and the association held.

Cancer death followed a different pattern. Resistance training was associated with lower cancer mortality only at lower doses, specifically 1 to 59 minutes per week. Higher amounts showed no additional cancer protection, with the association appearing driven primarily by lower death rates from colorectal, bladder, and breast cancers, though case numbers in those categories were relatively small.

Nearly 150,000 Americans Were Tracked for Up to 30 Years

Data came from three well-established American research groups: the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which enrolled male health professionals; the Nurses’ Health Study; and the Nurses’ Health Study II. Together they included 31,540 men and 115,834 women, with a median age of 54. Participants completed detailed questionnaires every two years covering health habits, diet, medical history, and physical activity.

Researchers used the cumulative average of all available exercise reports rather than a single snapshot, to better reflect each person’s long-term habits. Deaths were confirmed through family reports, autopsy records, and national death records, with a tracking rate exceeding 98%. Confounding factors including age, race, smoking history, body weight, diet quality, alcohol intake, and family history of heart disease and cancer were also accounted for.

Adding Weightlifting to Cardio Offers the Biggest Benefit

Among the study’s most practical findings was that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training consistently outperformed doing either alone.

People who did both at high levels saw the most substantial reduction in death risk. In one combination, moderate-to-high aerobic activity alongside 60 to 119 minutes per week of resistance training, the risk of dying from any cause was 45% lower than among those who did little aerobic activity and no resistance training. Aerobic exercise offered stronger overall protection on its own than resistance training alone, but for people who already run, walk, or cycle regularly, adding resistance training continued to reduce mortality risk at nearly every level of aerobic activity.

Among those who did some resistance training but little aerobic exercise, there was still a modest benefit, a 7 to 11% lower death risk compared to those doing neither, though less pronounced than what aerobic activity alone provided.

A Potential Brain Benefit Worth Watching

Perhaps the most underappreciated finding is the association between weightlifting and neurological disease death. Deaths from brain-related conditions, mostly attributed to dementia in this dataset, have been rising as the global population ages, yet resistance training’s potential role has received far less research attention than its effects on the heart.

Researchers acknowledged that reverse causation, the possibility that people with early neurological disease stop exercising before diagnosis, remains a concern. Still, the association held across analyses using 8- and 12-year lag periods, supporting the idea that the relationship is worth taking seriously.

With the study being observational, it cannot prove that lifting weights directly caused people to live longer, and its participants were mostly white, middle-aged to older health professionals, which limits how broadly the findings apply. But with nearly 150,000 participants tracked for up to 30 years, this is among the most thorough long-term looks at resistance training and mortality to date. For adults looking to reduce their risk of dying prematurely, somewhere around 60 to 119 minutes of weekly resistance training, especially alongside regular aerobic activity, looks like a practical target worth considering.

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Disclaimer: This article is for general information and is not a substitute for medical advice. Anyone new to strength training, especially people with health conditions, should consider checking with a qualified health professional.

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