The Study
Strength Training and All‐Cause, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer Mortality in Older Women: A Cohort Study
This study watched a bunch of older women over many years and noticed that those who lifted weights a little bit tended to live longer than those who didn’t — but it didn’t make them lift weights, so we can’t say lifting weights caused it. It’s like noticing people who eat more fruit are healthier — maybe it’s the fruit, or maybe they just live healthier lives overall.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Older women who lift weights a little bit each week may live longer, but doing too much might not help — and could even be risky.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — for older women, a little strength training (like 15–20 minutes, 4–5 days a week) seems to help live longer, but spending over 2.5 hours a week lifting may not add extra benefit.
- 2Women who lifted weights 1–149 minutes a week had 19%–29% lower risk of dying.
- 3Those who lifted 150+ minutes had a 10% higher risk (but this was not certain).
- 4The best amount was around 82 minutes per week.
- 5Combining lifting with 150+ minutes of walking or biking cut death risk by 46%.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease
Year
2017
Authors
M. Kamada, E. Shiroma, J. Buring, M. Miyachi, I. Lee
Related Content
Claims (6)
People who do 90 to 120 minutes of strength training each week have a lower risk of dying from any cause and live longer than those who do not.
Older women who do moderate strength training for 1 to 149 minutes per week have a 26% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who do not, regardless of aerobic exercise. There is no measurable difference in cancer death rates based on this level of strength training.
Women aged 62 and older who do 1 to 149 minutes of strength training per week have a 19% to 29% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to those who do no strength training, regardless of how much aerobic exercise they do.
Among older women, doing more than 150 minutes of strength training per week shows no reduction in the risk of death from any cause, and there is a small, statistically non-significant increase in risk observed, but the data are uncertain due to limited events and wide confidence intervals.
In older women, weekly strength training of about 82 minutes is linked to the lowest risk of death from any cause; training less than this or more than 146 minutes per week is associated with higher risk.
Older women who do both strength training and at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week have a 46% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to those who do not.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.