In 147,374 US nurses and health professionals, resistance training linked to lower death risk

What the study found

Points to benefit

90-119 min/week of resistance training: 13% lower all-cause death risk (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.95) vs none. No added benefit above 120 min/week. Lowest risk with high aerobic plus resistance (HR 0.55).

The study at a glance

Type of study

Population study: followed a group

Who or what was studied

147,374 people · US nurses and health professionals, followed up to 30 years

What was tested

Minutes per week of resistance training (asked every 2 years) vs none, linked to deaths

What it measured

The question itself: death from any cause and healthy aging

Who has a stake

No stake declared
No competing interests declared.

Journal

British journal of sports medicine, 2026

Source

PubMed record 42230125. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

• –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
• ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
• ✓Large: 147,374 people.
• ✓Measured the question itself: death from any cause and healthy aging.
• ✓No competing interests declared.
• •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

How it fits with the other research

Of the other 8 papers on the same step: 7 benefit, 1 mixed. This one found benefit. It agrees with most of them.

• Quoted in “What we found”: Benefit did not keep growing with more training: lowest risk was near 60 minutes per week in one review, and another study saw no added benefit above 120 min/week.
• Part of the finding “Population studies link strength training to fewer deaths”.
• Part of the finding “Benefit levels off at higher amounts”.
• Part of the finding “Strength plus aerobic activity linked to lowest risk”.
• Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Up to 30 years of repeated training measures.

Other papers on the same step

• In 412,413 US adults, leisure activity linked to lower death risk, more in women
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• In 216,339 older US adults, weight training linked to slightly lower risk of death
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• 6-month study of 381 adults with acute pancreatitis: supervised exercise linked to fewer deaths
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• In 47,538 adults with type 2 diabetes, strength activity went with lower death risk
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• In 500,705 US adults, aerobic plus muscle-strengthening activity linked to lowest death risk
  Population study: followed a group2023Points to benefit
• In 479,856 US adults, muscle strengthening alone was linked to lower risk of death
  Population study: followed a group2020Points to benefit

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