Adults who paired regular cardio with 60 to 119 minutes of weekly strength training had up to a 45 percent lower risk of dying during follow-up, according to a Harvard-led analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on June 2, 2026.
The pooled study tracked 147,374 men and women for up to 30 years, and 35,798 of them died during that window.
Doing either type of exercise on its own came nowhere near that number. Strength training alone for 90 to 119 minutes a week was linked to a 13 percent lower risk of dying from any cause.
The same dose cut the risk of cardiovascular death by 19 percent and the risk of death from neurological diseases such as dementia by 27 percent, the researchers reported.
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What "combined" actually looked like
Participants who logged 30 to 44 MET-hours of weekly aerobic activity, well above the standard 150-minute minimum, and paired it with an hour or two of resistance work saw the 45 percent reduction. At even higher aerobic doses, the reduction climbed to 53 to 58 percent regardless of how much lifting was added.
About 74 percent of participants already exceeded the recommended 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, and roughly 46 percent did some form of strength training, according to the BMJ Group summary.
Where the sweet spot sits for lifting
For strength work alone, benefit topped out at around two hours a week. The longevity ceiling for weekly lifting appeared at about 120 minutes, with no additional gain beyond that point.
Some benefits plateaued much earlier. For cancer death, the biggest reduction came from just 1 to 29 minutes of weekly strength training, a 21 percent lower risk, suggesting different tissues respond to different doses.
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The analysis pooled three long-running cohorts, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1992 to 2022), the Nurses' Health Study (2002 to 2021) and the Nurses' Health Study II (2003 to 2021). Average age at entry was 54.
What it looks like in a week
For a reader already walking briskly on most days, adding two 45-minute strength sessions covering the major muscle groups would put them in the range associated with the 45 percent figure.
Body-weight squats, push-ups, resistance bands and light free weights all count as resistance training under the study's definition.
The results cannot prove cause and effect. This was an observational study, and people who lift and do cardio consistently over decades tend to differ from those who do not in many other ways.
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"For people who are less active, the key message is that small amounts can still matter. Building a routine gradually may be more important than trying to do a lot at once," Edward Giovannucci, a co-author from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement.
The findings line up with separate research showing that pairing cardio with strength work may nearly halve diabetes risk, pointing to a broader pattern across chronic disease.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week plus muscle-strengthening work on two or more days.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.