30-60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity per week reduces risk of death by 10-20%

30 to 60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity per week is associated with a 10-20% lower risk of death from all causes, and cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, in particular, found a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the UK Journal of Sports Medicine

This finding has nothing to do with aerobic exercise

Physical activity guidelines recommend that adults engage in regular muscle-strengthening activities, primarily because of the benefits for skeletal muscle health

Previous research has linked increased muscle activity with a lower risk of death, but it's not known what the optimal "dose" is

To find out, the researchers searched research databases for relevant prospective observational studies that included adults without major health problems who were monitored for at least 2 years

The final analysis included 16 of the original 29 studies

The number of people participating in the study ranged from nearly 4,000 to nearly 480,000 people, ranging in age from 18 to 97

The pooled data analysis showed that muscle-strengthening exercise was associated with a 10-17% lower risk of death from any cause, as well as death from heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and lung cancer

No link was found between building muscle and a lower risk of developing certain cancers such as bowel, kidney, bladder or pancreatic cancer

A J-shaped curve emerged, with approximately 30-60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity per week associated with a maximum reduction of 10-20% in the risk of death from any cause, cardiovascular disease, and all cancers

The Type L link was observed in people with diabetes, where the risk was greatly reduced after 60 minutes of weekly muscle-strengthening activity, and tapered off thereafter

A combined analysis of muscle strengthening and aerobic exercise showed that combining the two types of exercise resulted in an even greater reduction in the risk of death from any cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer: 40%, 46%, and 28%, respectively

The researchers acknowledge that there are certain limitations to their findings, chief among them the fact that data from only a few studies were pooled together for each study's results

The researchers caution that because most studies were conducted in the United States, the findings may not have wider applicability

Given the "j"-shaped association, the potential of more muscle-strengthening activity to reduce the risk of death is unclear, they wrote

But they concluded: "The combination of muscle strengthening and aerobic exercise may have a greater benefit in reducing all-cause (cardiovascular disease) and overall cancer mortality

"Given the limited data available, further research, such as studies with a more diverse population, is needed to increase the certainty of the evidence
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