90-120 minutes of strength training per week may help extend lifespan
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Want to live longer? Study finds sweet spot for cardio and strength training
Written by Corrie Pelc on June 4, 2026 — Fact checked by Jill Seladi-Schulman, Ph.D.
Share on PinterestCan 90 minutes of weight lifting weekly actually help protect against heart and brain disease? Oleg Breslavtsev/Getty Images
Being physically active has been linked to a longer, healthier life.<br>However, questions remain about what types of exercise are best and how many minutes a week to spend on it for the best results.<br>A new study found that a combination of both high aerobic activity and between 60 and 119 minutes per week of strength training may be best for lowering a person’s mortality risk from any cause.<br>Scientists also found that between 90 and 120 minutes a week of resistance training may also possibly lower a person’s risk of dying from cardiovascular or neurological diseases.
Being physically active has been linked to a longer, healthier life, but what type of exercise is best? Should you focus on aerobic exercises, like walking or running? Or strength training with weights or bodyweight exercises like pilates? And how many minutes of each should you get during the week?
A new study recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine helps to provide some guidance and answers to these questions.
Researchers found that a combination of both high aerobic activity and between 60 to 119 minutes a week of strength training may be best for lowering a person’s mortality risk from any cause.
Scientists also found that between 90 to 120 minutes a week of resistance training may also possibly lower a person’s risk of dying from cardiovascular or neurological diseases.
Why study both aerobic and strength training exercises?
For this study, researchers analyzed about 30 years of data from more than 147,000 participants with an average age of 54 of three large previously-conducted studies — Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 1992–2022; the Nurses’ Health Study, 2002–2021; and the Nurses’ Health Study II, 2003–2021.
Study participants were asked questions about their weekly aerobic exercise and strength training regimen every two years, for up to 30 years total.
“The benefits of aerobic activity for longevity are already well established,” Edward Giovannucci, MD, ScD, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and corresponding author of this study, told Medical News Today. “What has been less clear is how resistance training relates to long-term mortality risk, especially at different volumes and in combination with aerobic activity.”
“Physical activity is not one single behavior,” added Yiwen Zhang, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the first author of this study. “Aerobic activity and resistance training may benefit health through different pathways, so it is important to study them separately and together.”
Strength training 90-120 min/week lowers mortality risk by 13%
At the study’s conclusion, researchers found that participating in 90 to 120 minutes a week of strength training was correlated with a 13% lower risk of dying from any cause. And, scientists note, no further benefit was observed above 120 minutes a...