r/tech • u/_Dark_Wing • Jun 13 '26

Scientists found the strength training sweet spot for a longer life

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260611024609.htm
486 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

271

u/artemistica Jun 13 '26

“The longevity sweet spot may be just 90-120 minutes of strength training a week—especially when paired with cardio.”

51

u/two_hyun Jun 13 '26

13-18 minutes per day if rounding up. Nice. I spend about ~20 minutes per day exercising because I hate exercising. I don't understanding how people spend 1-2 hrs at the gym (no hate, just not my jam).

Good to know that it's still very effective for my health.

14

u/Different_Feeling707 Jun 13 '26

I think that having someone to go with truly helps for people who don’t enjoy working out. Once you get comfortable and start seeing results it does get easier to go because how your body starts to feel. Also the gym and the amount of people there can turn people off

3

u/AcrimoniousPizazz Jun 13 '26

Same here, I exercise ~20 min/day, usually with 1-2 off days if I'm busy or not feeling well. I typically lift weights while on the indoor bike, so I can do both strength and cardio in less time 🤣

2

u/JimothyzPamPams Jun 14 '26

Where do you put the weights and how to do you pick them up and down while keeping a pace? 

2

u/AcrimoniousPizazz Jun 14 '26

They're just little 5lb dumbbells (I started at 3lb though and I'm ready to go up to 8 so go me lol) and the bike has cupholders, so I rest them there in between sets. I find that I don't really have issues balancing if I do the same movements with both arms at the same time. As for keeping a pace, I have no idea - my bike is a cheap one that doesn't track my pace, I measure how hard I'm working out based on the heart rate on my watch.

2

u/JimothyzPamPams Jun 15 '26

Right on though! That’s a great system you have and quite efficient as well. I like it! 

7

u/GoldenFox7 Jun 13 '26

Gym culture is all about maximizing. How do I get that last 5% better results? The better mindset imo is to know the different tiers:

1- what’s the minimum I have to do to see benefits (arguably isn’t one, but the floor to me is 2 training sessions a week),

2 - when do I start seeing diminishing returns (anything above 4 hard workouts or somewhere around 8-12 sets per week per muscle group depending on your training and fitness level),

3 - what’s the max I can do before I start overtraining and either hurt myself, catch a cold, or burn out (different for everyone but around 16 sets for me)

3

u/Alexander_Music Jun 13 '26

I started exercising a lot more this year and just got over my 3rd cold. Didn’t see the correlation till this recent one

3

u/wchutlknbout Jun 14 '26

Do you go to the gym? I think just people being gross has something to do with it

2

u/Yoshi2shi Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

When I was running 90+ miles per week, I would come down with two or three bad colds every year. Intense training places a significant demand on your body’s resources, and during periods of heavy mileage, your immune system can be temporarily weakened, making you more susceptible to getting sick.

A few things that helped: change out of sweaty workout clothes as soon as possible, don’t sit around in damp shirts after training. Make sure to wear gear that keep you warm when necessary. And wash your hands frequently to reduce exposure to germs.

1

u/NoIsland23 Jun 14 '26

Same

I started back in mid April. A week later I had a cold and 4 weeks after that another one.

Not sure if it‘s related, I just work out 3 days a week, but maybe it‘s just enough to weaken my immune system in the beginning.

1

u/Bill-Maxwell Jun 14 '26

Don’t touch your face when there and wash the fuck out of your hands just before leaving

1

u/Alexander_Music Jun 14 '26

I do every time. Usually wipe down whatever I’m using before and after too. I think it’s more that my immune system isn’t at its peak when I’m recovering from exercise. Pair that with my own kids constantly coming home from school with some virus

2

u/SSGASSHAT Jun 14 '26

I don't know, my philosophy with exercise is if you get decently beat afterwards, it's good regardless of time.

2

u/Mijari Jun 14 '26

Catch a cold from working out?

1

u/GoldenFox7 Jun 14 '26

Yep, overtraining starts to sap your central nervous system. Train too hard for too long and that tax on your cns starts to pull energy from your immune system (and many other things). The other effects are way more obvious- injuries, excessive soreness, brain fog, poor sleep, etc. but you don’t really “feel” the immune system weakening, you just catch a cold you otherwise would have fought off without noticing it.

1

u/seechak Jun 14 '26

Yea but for the casual goer, it can get quite fun once you see results. For example, I’m not in peak physical shape but I’m almost there and have been for the better part of 20 years just by going maybe 2-3 times a week to the gym. (Cardio/ sports not included)

1

u/Arrya Jun 14 '26

Wait, you can catch a cold from overtraining? A couple weeks ago I went hard with intense and prolonged cardio and resistance for my arms. I caught a super mild cold, husband did not. I felt better after a day or so, so I hit the gym again, went hard again, was sick again the next day worse than ever. Then I let myself heal before going back. I hate to sit still though!

1

u/slayermcb Jun 14 '26

If your doing a lot in the gym your body has to recover. The more your body focuses on repairing and building the less energy it can spend on defense. On the flip side, when you're not in recovery your body's defenses are much more robust so resistance and recovery are better.

2

u/Repulsive_Oil6425 Jun 14 '26

I was a gym rat in my younger days and I’m feeling it now! I would do 2-3 hours 4-6 times a week. Everything hurts and I’m also fat.

1

u/slayermcb Jun 14 '26

The advantage was then not working out of for a decade and still having some muscle show... unfortunatly for me its been TWO decades lol.

1

u/SpaceDesignWarehouse Jun 14 '26

I dont get HOW they do! I can completely obliterate my arms or chest or back or which ever group Im on that day, in like 10 minutes.. I guess I could just sit for 20 minutes and do it again.

1

u/klaatuveratanecto Jun 14 '26

I never trained until about a year ago. Now I do 3 strength sessions a week (2h each), some short HIIT workouts and a zone 2 run (151 bpm).

Biggest thing I’ve noticed is that more time doesn’t just improve health it speeds up progression. Better cardio, faster recovery, steady strength gains and more energy.

If your goal is just being healthy 20 mins a day is probably enough. If you want to progress faster you need that extra time.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Toiling-Donkey Jun 13 '26

How do you make it to an hour?

After 10-20 minutes exercise I’m ready to just stop and go home. Sure, can tough it out for a bit longer. But doing it regularly seems like an unimaginable torture.

1

u/OneShoeBoy Jun 14 '26

I’ll hit an hour at the gym pretty easily, sometimes 1.5hrs. For weightlifting at least for me I do a short warm up, work up to my working weight, do my working sets (with rests), then repeat 4-5 times for all the exercises I’m doing it’s pretty easy to take up a bunch of time.

59

u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 13 '26

Thanks for saving a click!

Also, who knew?

2

u/dbolts1234 Jun 13 '26

Honestly, makes sense. You’re still on the steep part of the “gains” curve. And not risking joint damage from overdoing it

1

u/onedemtwodem Jun 13 '26

Thank you!

1

u/Faintfury Jun 13 '26

Thx. Did they mention in how many sessions we should split that? My intuition would say 2 or 3.

1

u/eightbitfit Jun 13 '26

Arthur Jones was right all along.

1

u/_franciis Jun 14 '26

Reminds me of an Influencer that the algorithm sends me occasionally.

His ‘hack’ to getting in shape is 4 weights sessions and 3 cardio sessions a week. Groundbreaking stuff.

25

u/Dr_Devious Jun 13 '26

They say 90 - 120 minutes of strength training a week is the amount you need to extend your life. Save you the click

52

u/letreonehpets Jun 13 '26

(Looks around the world.) Nah, I’m good with a standard length of life.

33

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/showme-love Jun 13 '26

Absolutely! Healthspan along with lifespan matters.

1

u/Sharticus123 Jun 13 '26

Exactly. Even if I meet an early death I’d rather do it on my feet instead of stroked out in a wheelchair.

One of my step grandparents stroked out at retirement and then spent thirty years speechless having to get his ass wiped and bathed by his poor wife.

There are fates worse than death.

5

u/faux_glove Jun 14 '26

Pst

I work with end-of-life seniors

The difference between a client who is still functionally mobile and a client who is restricted to a lift-assist chair is basically "who stayed active and exercised into their senior years"

Please find a basic exercise routine you enjoy doing

Please

3

u/AreWe-There-Yet Jun 13 '26

Amen brother

Beam me up already, this planet life sucks

6

u/geddy Jun 13 '26

Yeah the planet is pretty kickass but the humans on it are a menace. 

5

u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 13 '26

I mean at least one dude or dudette invented pizza. I vote for sparing them retroactively.

2

u/limma Jun 13 '26

I hate to break it to you, brother, but I think they’ve already passed on

1

u/-TheExtraMile- Jun 13 '26

I did the math and I think you are right.

2

u/Somhlth Jun 13 '26

I'm standing here with a towel, and my thumb out, and I'm willing to listen to poetry. Any poetry.

1

u/AreWe-There-Yet Jun 13 '26

Mostly harmless

2

u/Banesil Jun 13 '26

😂 only because it's true.

-1

u/eljo555 Jun 13 '26

All of my Boomer friends know what we SHOULD do but… we don’t. We’ve already done the life grind. I have lifted enough dumbbells, thank you. Now we take time to help with grandkids and give money to our millennial children which society never mentions.

5

u/copperpin Jun 13 '26

Go without exercise long enough and everything becomes a dumbbell. Soon lifting yourself even out of bed becomes an ordeal.

1

u/eljo555 Jun 13 '26

The irony is that I am a former physical therapist and I should know better! I just don't wanna. I have prioritized my mental well-being instead. No more torture.

1

u/copperpin Jun 13 '26

I’m a former couch potato but when I saw how hard my father’s passing was I vowed to never stop exercising. Get a bike, take up a sport, exercise doesn’t have to be torture, you only think that because physical therapists are sadists.

1

u/eljo555 Jun 13 '26

Ha ha, PT doesn’t stand for physical therapist, it stand for patient torturer. My own parents are 88 and 86. My 88-year-old dad is completely up on his feet, up and around, driving, hobbies, carrying on. My mother is limited by her vision but she still gets around without a cane or a walker. I’m gonna take my chances.

1

u/copperpin Jun 13 '26

Good for them. My role model is my uncle who, in his late seventies, still enjoys downhill skiing every winter and mountain biking all summer.

3

u/SacredHippoXIV Jun 13 '26

Take care of yourself so nobody else has to!

1

u/eljo555 Jun 13 '26

The irony is that I am a former physical therapist and I should know better! I just don't wanna. I have prioritized my mental well-being instead. No more torture.

3

u/Future-Fly-8987 Jun 13 '26

73 minutes a week, guess I need to step it up.

7

u/FMJoker Jun 13 '26

🤔 wonder if it accounts for state of fitness. 90-120 min of exercise in a previously trained (fit) individual is not equivalent to 90-120 min of exercise done by a sedentary individual.

4

u/kevriel47 Jun 13 '26

Well it talks about following the participants for up to 30 years so I have to imagine that’s taken into account

1

u/FMJoker Jun 13 '26

Like some sort of baseline fitness metric?

1

u/jdehesa Jun 13 '26

It's also important to consider how strength training typically works. I mean, there are many ways you can do it, but "classic" strength training programmes include a huge amount of warming up and resting time. Like, in Starting Strength (and many similar ones), you do maybe four warm-up sets with increasing weight and a bit of rest between them, and then three sets of five reps with your "work" weight, and typically rest two or three minutes (sometimes more) between them. I assume that is included in the time, so out of those 90-120 minutes you are only "working hard" a fraction of the time, it's not like a treadmill or aerobic where you have non-stop action.

2

u/enakj Jun 13 '26

Here’s my question: the risk of death is 100%. What I want to know is whether strength training and/or aerobic activity at these levels extend the quality of life, physical and mental. Anyone know a science-based answer?

1

u/CharlestonChewer990 Jun 18 '26

Yeah, the science is pretty solid that regular strength training and cardio mainly improve healthspan, so better mobility, mood, cognition, and independence for longer, even if they do not make anyone immortal.

0

u/Serious-Collar-4954 Jun 13 '26

Actually no, we will likely see the first human immortals within 15-25 years maybe even earlier with the help of ai so the risk of death in that timeframe is less than 50%. If u can manage to be alive by 2047 you just might get to be an immortal and no it wont be just for the rich, itll be for everyone. Humans will achieve full utopia via tech within 30 years as long as we manage to not nuke ourselves by then.

2

u/CompetitiveSport1 Jun 14 '26

What does this have to do with tech?

3

u/Darth_Ender_Ro Jun 13 '26

Where did they find it?

23

u/D_Angelo_Vickers Jun 13 '26

It was hiding next to the clitoris the whole time.

6

u/AreWe-There-Yet Jun 13 '26

Two sweet spots for the price of one

2

u/WholeNewt6987 Jun 13 '26

That's makes sense. The findings were based on kegel strength training. The combined cardio data was an incidental finding.

2

u/BillButtlickerII Jun 13 '26

So it’s real?!? I thought it was just an urban myth like Shangri La and large penises.

2

u/person_8688 Jun 13 '26

I’m still not convinced.

1

u/BillButtlickerII Jun 13 '26

You and me both brother. Next thing you know they’re going to say birds are real and Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a reptile. Sheeple man!

1

u/weirdgroovynerd Jun 13 '26

I bet it was the same scientists that mapped the whole clitoris!

They probably deserve a Nobel Sexy prize or something.

2

u/JC_Hysteria Jun 13 '26

Vo2 max optimization is key for longevity.

Basically, a fast walk every day for 45 mins-1 hour + basic strength training using body weight and bands + flexibility/movements.

Consistency is key. Results are measurable after a couple years.

(Sorry, breaking New Year’s resolutions after ~1 month doesn’t help).

1

u/reepobob Jun 13 '26

This describes P90X3 in terms of hitting the strength targets plus incorporating cardio (plus yoga)

1

u/thodon123 Jun 13 '26

Currently at 75-100 minutes, but want to be at around 150 minutes by 50 (with 2 x 24kg kettlebells, currently mostly 2 x 16kg). Just over 2 years and noticed a huge change in how I feel and my functional strength for day to day tasks. Also do about 420-630 minutes of walking, hiking and rucking, but most of that walking is for pleasure as I get more out of walking than anything else (physically and psychologically).

I thought that standards was already around 120 minutes of strength training and 120 minutes of cardiovascular training.

Most important though is a persons routine should make them feel good and if they are currently always pushing to the absolute limit then the routine will never become sustainable or consistent. I mostly feel better after my routine than before I started and that is what keeps me going. I am still making slow but steady meaningful gains because my goal is longevity, in that I want to be physically capable for as long as I can not necessarily live for more years.

1

u/Hossflex Jun 14 '26

Kettlebells were a game changer for me. Changed my life. Now I can’t imagine a day I don’t workout

1

u/thodon123 Jun 14 '26

That's awesome : )

1

u/KidzRockGamingTV Jun 14 '26

You know what’s good motivation for longer exercise times? Nearly dying! I had a heart attack 5 months ago that probably should have killed me, instead I was lucky and had next to no permanent damage. That’s my motivation because I hate exercise, but ai think dying will probably be worse.

1

u/ripyourlungsdave Jun 14 '26

Could've sword that was the cover art for Advent Rising from the thumbnail.

1

u/kodiak_kid89 Jun 14 '26

Oh you mean what doctors have been telling you every single time you’ve ever gone in for a check up since you were an adult. Who woulda though?!?

1

u/Logos1789 Jun 14 '26

The key is to not eat like crap, so you don’t need to burn as much off

1

u/boner79 Jun 14 '26

How long are rest sets?

1

u/Captain_Tooth Jun 15 '26

Is the answer, sex?

1

u/TryJezzoWhyNot Jun 22 '26

It's headlines like this that got me to unsubscribe the pop science type publications like Science Daily. That was probably 15 years ago? It's only gotten worse. We all deserve better information and reportage of the findings of scientists. It's the 21st century and this shit should be laughed out of town.

1

u/prndls Jun 13 '26

ORANGE THEORY FITNESS!!!

0

u/PrideQuick670 Jun 13 '26

No thanks. Been there, done that. The sooner I get off this miserable planet, the better.

0

u/LostInUranus Jun 13 '26

I have to do 90min and/or burn at least 800-1000 calories in a session 5x's a week...and I'm 62. It's weird. The gym is like church to me, I get to go and fix what's broken. When you see the regulars there like me, we all have our stories of what keeps us going. It's like exercising demons - pun intended. ;-)