How much strength training do you need to live longer?
About two sessions a week, an hour or two in all. In a 2026 Harvard study of 147,374 US health professionals followed for up to 30 years, people who lifted 90 to 119 minutes a week had a 13% lower risk of death. Past two hours the benefit stopped growing, and walking enough went with a bigger drop than any amount of lifting.
The headlines made this sound simpler and bigger than it was. Some said 30 minutes a week, some said 90, and Harvard’s own release said lifting and aerobic exercise together went with “up to 45%” lower risk. All of those numbers are in the study. They just answer different questions, and the 45% needed a lot more than lifting.
What we’d do
Lift twice a week, about an hour in all to start and up to two hours. Then spend any extra time walking. In this study, past two hours of lifting, extra walking went with lower risk and extra lifting didn’t.
The study
Three Harvard cohorts, 30 years
147,374 US nurses and other health professionals (31,540 men and 115,834 women), followed for up to 30 years, 35,798 deaths. Zhang and others, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2026
Every 2 to 4 years, people reported their weekly time on weight machines or other resistance training. About 46% reported any. The researchers compared death rates by lifting time, adjusted for how much aerobic exercise each person did.
Self-reported, mostly white, middle-aged and older health professionals, and people who chose to lift. It didn’t count body-weight training or Pilates, or how hard anyone lifted.
| Lifting a week | Risk of death, against no lifting |
|---|---|
| None | The comparison |
| 1 to 29 minutes | 5% lower |
| 30 to 59 minutes | 9% lower |
| 60 to 89 minutes | 9% lower |
| 90 to 119 minutes | 13% lower |
| 120 minutes or more | 8% lower |
At 90 to 119 minutes, deaths from heart disease were 19% lower and deaths from neurological disease, such as dementia, were 27% lower. Cancer deaths didn’t fall at that dose. Past 120 minutes the drop got smaller, though it was still below no lifting at all.
It’s like sleep
More lifting works a bit like more sleep. Going from 4 hours a night to 7 changes your whole day. Going from 9 to 11 doesn’t make you any sharper. The first hour or two of lifting a week is where nearly all the measured benefit sits.
Walking did more
The researchers also looked at lifting and aerobic exercise together. Aerobic exercise was counted in MET-hours, and brisk walking (2.5 mph or faster) counts as moderate, at about 3 METs, so 150 minutes of brisk walking is 7.5 MET-hours. Here’s the grid, shown in brisk walking minutes, against people who did neither:
| Brisk walking a week | No lifting | 1 to 59 min | 60 to 119 min | 120+ min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 150 minutes | The comparison | 7% lower | 11% lower | 3% lower |
| 150 to 300 minutes | 26% lower | 27% lower | 30% lower | 31% lower |
| 300 to 600 minutes | 32% lower | 38% lower | 44% lower | 39% lower |
| 600 to 900 minutes | 37% lower | 41% lower | 45% lower | 47% lower |
| 900 or more | 43% lower | 47% lower | 43% lower | 42% lower |
Walking 150 to 300 minutes a week with no lifting at all went with 26% lower risk, twice the best lifting group’s 13%. The “up to 45%” in the headlines came from people doing 600 to 900 minutes of aerobic exercise a week, which is 10 to 15 hours of brisk walking, plus an hour or two of lifting. Running counts for more per minute, since it’s vigorous, but that’s still a lot of running.
13%the best lifting group
90 to 119 minutes a week, adjusted for aerobic exercise, in 147,374 US adults.
26%walking, no lifting
150 to 300 minutes of brisk walking a week, in the same study.
27%fewer neurological deaths
Deaths from neurological disease at 90 to 119 minutes of lifting a week.
A second opinion
In 2022, Haruki Momma and colleagues pooled 16 cohort studies. People who did any muscle-strengthening activity had a 15% lower risk of death than people who did none. The lowest risk came at about 40 minutes a week, 17% lower, and risk stayed below no lifting up to about 140 minutes. Lifting plus aerobic exercise went with 40% lower risk than neither.
The two analyses found slightly different best doses, about 40 minutes in one and 90 to 119 in the other. An hour to start, and two hours at most, sits inside both. Both are studies of people who chose how to exercise, so they show what went with a longer life, not what caused it.
Where are you?
Put your own minutes into how much is enough? and watch your cell light up in the same grid. In that grid, moving your walking from 60 to 150 minutes a week moves you further than doubling your lifting.
4 sources
- Zhang Y and others, Long-term resistance training with all-cause and cause-specific mortality, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2026pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Moderate amount of strength training each week could boost longevity, 2026hsph.harvard.edu
- Momma H and others, Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Measuring physical activity intensitycdc.gov
