How much Exercise Do you Actually Need?
We all know exercise is one of the most powerful things we can do for our long-term health. But one question has remained surprisingly difficult to answer:
How much exercise do we actually need?
A brand-new meta-analysis from researchers at Harvard, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, helps provide an answer. Researchers analyzed data from more than 145,000 men and women followed over a 30-year period to examine how resistance training and aerobic exercise influence all-cause mortality.
The results reinforce something we've believed at Discover Strength for a long time: both resistance training and aerobic exercise play essential roles in healthy aging.
What the Research Found
The researchers identified several important findings:
Resistance training reduced all-cause mortality, along with deaths related to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological conditions.
Aerobic exercise also reduced all-cause mortality, confirming its importance for long-term health.
More isn't always better. For example, the benefits of resistance training on cancer-specific mortality began to diminish when participants exceeded approximately 59 minutes of resistance training per week.
Effort matters. Simply completing exercise isn't enough. To maximize the health benefits, both resistance training and aerobic exercise should be performed with a high level of effort.
The Takeaway
Many people assume that if some exercise is good, more must be better. This study suggests that isn't necessarily the case.
Consistent, high-quality exercise appears to matter far more than accumulating endless hours of training each week. For resistance training in particular, relatively modest weekly volumes can produce meaningful health benefits when performed with appropriate effort.
This is encouraging news. You don't need to spend hours in the gym every day to improve your long-term health. A well-designed resistance training program paired with regular aerobic exercise can go a long way toward reducing your risk of premature death and improving your quality of life.
A Few Important Caveats
Like nearly every large observational study, this research has limitations.
The participants self-reported both their resistance training and aerobic exercise habits. That means researchers couldn't directly verify training intensity, exercise selection, technique, or long-term adherence to each person's program.
While those limitations should be considered when interpreting the findings, the overall message remains remarkably consistent with decades of exercise research: resistance training and aerobic exercise are both powerful tools for promoting longevity.
The challenge isn't finding the "perfect" amount of exercise. The challenge is building a routine you can perform consistently, with purpose and effort, for years to come.