This RECENT PUBLICATION has been making headlines, and the not-so-shocking conclusion was that people who perform both regular aerobic exercise AND resistance exercise seem to die less than people who just sit around. And this goes right along with many of my catchphrases, such as:
–No one ever said, “I wish I was weaker,” and no one’s New Year’s Resolution is to be “less aerobically fit.”
–Heavy weights aren’t going to pick themselves up.
-And from powerlifter Mark Rippetoe: “Strong people are harder to kill and are more useful in general.”
We could basically finish the analysis right now and go for a run to the local gym, but it might be worthwhile to unpack a few things from the publication…so here we go!
–Almost 150,000 people followed for up to 30 years were included in this analysis. Interestingly, nearly 80% of these individuals were women, although results were said to be consistent for both males and females. The reported weekly quantities of aerobic and resistance exercise were compiled for all participants.
-Compared to people who avoided weightlifting like the plague, all-cause mortality was reduced by 13% in those who reported regular resistance exercise of 90-119 minutes/week. Cardiovascular mortality was reduced by 19%, and neurologic disease mortality (which might be trickier to quantify) was reduced by 27%. It seems like if you pick up heavy things, your heart and brain will thank you! The effects of resistance exercise on cancer mortality were much less impressive; aside from the cancers directly associated with insulin resistance, I wouldn’t expect there to be much effect one way or the other. The Cancer Cabal is a Malignant Mafia of heterogeneous and unpredictable evil, and I’m thankful we have brilliant people researching better therapeutic approaches for various neoplastic processes.
–In those who engaged in both 90-119 minutes/week of resistance exercise AND 30-45 metabolic equivalent (MET) hours of weekly aerobic exercise, there was an observed 45% reduction in all-cause mortality. Since most normal people don’t report their MET hours on their workout logs or Strava accounts, THIS CHART can hopefully give you a little context on the MET levels of various activities. For example, running at a 7:30 minute mile pace (8 miles per hour) is about 12 METs. So if you ran 8 miles at 7:30 pace, that would be 12 MET hours. Ergo, if running is your primary mode of aerobic exercise, you’d likely be running upwards of 30 miles per week to achieve 45 MET hours via that modality. That’s a fair amount of volume.
-In those who engaged in >45 MET hours per week, it didn’t matter how much resistance exercise they did or didn’t perform; there was still an observed 42 to 47% reduction in all-cause mortality. Once again, although this is observational data not without limitations, this DOES NOT SUPPORT the false dichotomy that “people who do a ton of cardio are just skinny fat and suck at life” compared with Gym Bros who spend 4 hours a day in the weight room doing 4 sets of 4 reps of 4 exercises with 4 minutes of “rest” spent flexing and posting on Instagram between each movement.
So from a practical standpoint, what can we take away from all of this? If you’re just lifting weights, you’ll die less than the people who are allergic to physical activity. But if you get winded walking from the squat rack to the bench press, you could stand to mix in a little more cardio. And raising your heart rate from 60-65 while sitting on a recumbent bike scrolling on your phone doesn’t count.
If you prioritize some degree of aerobic and athletic performance, some resistance training (perhaps 60-119 minutes/week) will help you stay strong and injury-free while you bike, run, Zumba, play pickleball, or whatever you enjoy. And 60 minutes of resistance exercise per week really isn’t that much of a time commitment. You can accomplish quite a bit in the weight room if you efficiently prioritize compound movements (such as squats, hinges, step ups, lunges, vertical/horizontal presses/pulls) rather than merely doing tricep kickbacks with pink weights or Curls for the Girls.
God gave us minds to learn and bodies to move, so why would you want to do the bare minimum of learning or moving? Embrace the Gift of Life…and you can add a lot more “life to your years” if you exert reasonable stewardship of your physical faculties😊
