Regular exercise has many known health benefits, such as prolonging life. In a US study that followed more than 400,000 American adults from 1997-2014, those who regularly did both strength and cardio exercise had the lowest risk of dying during the study period, reports The New York Times.
The participants had to fill in questionnaires about how often they exercised in general, as well as whether they exercised gently or hard, and how many times a week they did strength training.
After adjusting the results for factors such as age, gender, level of education and any diseases, the researchers concluded that those who exercised for an hour a week had a 15 percent lower risk of death compared to those who did not exercise at all.
For those who exercised three hours a week, the same figure was 27 percent, and for those who also did strength training one to two times a week, the figure was 40 percent.
It has been difficult to research the relationship between longevity and strength training because so few people do strength training regularly. But researchers generally agree that it can have important benefits for healthy aging.
The study was published in the scientific journal The British Journal of Sports Medicine.