A recent review of health studies has shown that regular strengthening exercises reduced mortality rates from all causes. i.e., those who did resistance training for 30-60 minutes per week had a 10-17% lower chance of dying from a similar disease than their non-exercising peers. This included general cancer, diabetes, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease but not some site-specific cancers (colon, kidney, bladder, and pancreatic).

This was independent of aerobic type exercising, which has additional benefits.

Whilst winning medals or looking good might be reasons for exercising that we can do without, the chance to reduce disease is something that everyone can benefit from.

Resistance training has been recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) for some time but mainly due to the musculoskeletal benefits: bone mineral density, muscle function and range, brain health, blood glucose regulation, and obesity control. The evidence showing other health benefits means that resistance training is indisputably essential for all adults (and children, but they are not the subject of this article).

You do not have to go to the gym to train your muscles (although you can if you like). Here are some ideas on scheduling resistance training in your everyday life and feel the benefits.

Train regularly

The study quoted only looked at weight training and calisthenics and their health outcomes. It did not include research on activities such as gardening or carrying heavy loads that require strength. So, while these are worthwhile activities, we can not assume that they have the same benefits as a scheduled, planned programme of resistance training. They might, but we don’t know it yet.

Resistance training means working against gravity: you can either lift an external weight such as a dumbbell or a water bottle, or you can move your own body like a push-up or pull up. Whatever you do must require effort. If it is easy, then it won’t be helping you! Consistency of training is essential: the study showed big health improvements as time training increased from 30-60 minutes but not as big improvements after that. So an hour a week is better than half an hour a week. It does not matter how you split that time up. You could do 10 minutes a day for six days a week or an hour every Saturday, it doesn’t matter.

The most important thing is that it fits your schedule.

What should I do?

It depends on where you are and what your experience is. If you are a beginner, I would recommend splitting up into smaller sessions if you can to allow yourself time to recover. An hour of training might be too much to start.

Simple is good. Bodyweight exercises are best to start with and then you can add external resistance when you can move well and with control. Exercises that require movement and coordination between the muscles have a greater transfer to everyday living: they also burn

Ideas About The Squat

This could be one of your 6 mini-workouts.

Connecting your upper body with your lower body is important. This sequence shows how this can be done:

and these are slightly harder:

Upper body strength is important but pull-ups and press-ups are hard to do. One way to develop grip strength and improve your posture is to hang from a bar or rafter, here are some ideas that are fun (start with the simple hanging):

and for press up progressions here:

Finally, if you want to add resistance you can start with a couple of water bottles before progressing to dumbbells. A water bottle in each hand allows you to do lots of different exercises. If you look in this video, you can see how the dumbbells are used safely:

For the health gains mentioned in the study, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, as long as you are doing something. We all have favorite types of exercises and those that are most convenient. Do that if you like bodyweight, dumbbell, barbell, or kettlebell. Or, mix and match to have fun.

Do what you can keep doing for the rest of your life and make it part of your fun weekly routine rather than a chore to overcome.