For years, exercisers focused on getting in plenty of cardio. And, while cardio is still considered a great way to work out, more recent data has suggested that adding strength training to the mix is a great way to keep yourself strong and healthy.
Of course, adding strength training to your usual routine takes some careful thought and planning, especially if you’ve never done it in the past. Now, there’s new research that suggests strength training could help decrease your biological age—stressing the importance of adding lifting to your life.
Here’s what the study found, plus simple ways to incorporate strength exercises into your life, according to a trainer.
Meet the expert: Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab.
What did the study find?
The study, which was published in the journal Biology, analyzed the impact of weight training on aging in nearly 5,000 men and women between the ages of 20 to 69.
For the study, researchers looked at the length of the participants’ telomeres, which are protective DNA caps at the ends of chromosomes, through blood testing. (Telomeres help prevent your DNA from getting damaged, among other things, and are usually measured in biological aging.) The participants were also asked how often they worked out, including how often they did strength training.
Ultimately, the researchers discovered that doing 90 minutes a week of strength training was linked with nearly four years less biological aging. Meaning, if you did 180 minutes a week of strength training, you could cut your biological age by up to eight years.
What are the takeaways from the findings?
The findings actually line up well with current exercise guidelines in the U.S. The current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, with at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity in the mix weekly.
What’s the link with aging? The researchers broke it down in the study, noting that strength training “mitigates some of the damage caused by such chronic diseases, reversing muscle loss, raising resting metabolic rate, promoting fat loss, and improving cardiovascular health.” As a result, it may “limit disease and slow the aging of cells.”
Basically, the main takeaway is that strength training could help you to be biologically younger.
But Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab, points out that this was all self-reported, meaning there’s a chance that some people may have fudged or exaggerated how much lifting they actually do. There always wasn’t a specific weight-lifting protocol, leaving plenty of room for variation here.
But the study found that more is better when it comes to weight lifting and telomere length. “More hours are most correlated to the longest telomere length,” Matheny says.
What are the easiest ways to start strength training?
If you’ve never picked up a set of weights, it’s understandable to feel a little intimidated by it. But Matheny says it’s possible to get an easy-to-follow routine started without equipment.
“You don’t need weights beyond body weight to start strength training,” Matheny says. “Start with body weight stuff.”
He suggests starting your routine by focusing on larger muscle groups, like your legs and glutes. That means doing things like lunges, squats, walking lunges, step-ups, and step-back lunges. “Those are the easiest things to do that recruit large muscle groups,” he says.
To work your upper body, try push-ups and pull-ups. “For push-ups, you can start with a plank—that is strength training,” Matheny says. You can do kneeling push-ups if a full push-up feels like too much. “For pull-ups you can use a band [for assistance] and work your way up,” he says.
To challenge yourself, simply add more reps, step higher, or use less aids to get the full body resistance, Matheny says.
“When you’ve tapped out on that, start adding some weights,” Matheny says. “Then, ideally, you get to the gym.”
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