People who do strength training like lifting weights may live longer because studies show they’re less likely to die from any cause compared to those who don’t.

We don’t really know if variable resistance training works well for athletes or over long periods—most studies have only looked at beginners and for a few months at most.

Older studies showed bigger strength gains from weight training than newer ones, probably because today’s studies are better designed and less biased.

How much you lift in total each week matters more for results than whether you do it in 2 days or 5 days—unless you’re trying to get stronger, then frequency helps a bit.

Most of what we know about how much to lift and how often comes from young men who already work out—so we don’t know if it works the same way for women, older people, or beginners.