Why the recent strength training study got me thinking

I promise this isn't going to become a science blog...

But I read a study this week that I haven't stopped thinking about.

It was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and has already made quite a few headlines (the BBC covered it too). The researchers followed almost 150,000 adults over several decades and found that 90–120 minutes of strength training a week was associated with a 13% reduction in risk of death from all causes (heart disease by 19% and dementia by 27%)!

As someone with a science background I am always cautious about getting carried away by a single study. One paper doesn't suddenly prove something we've never known before. What it does do is add another piece to the puzzle. And what I found so encouraging is that this study joins a growing body of evidence all pointing in the same direction: strength training isn't just about building muscle or improving your fitness. It's one of the best investments we can make in our long-term health.

For years, strength training has felt like something reserved for people who spend half their lives in the gym. Yet this study is talking about the equivalent of three 30 minute or four 20 minute sessions a week.

Whenever I tell people what I do, I hear some version of, "I know I should start lifting weights." It's rarely followed by, "I just don't want to." More often it's, "I wouldn't know where to start," or "I don't have the time," or "The gym feels intimidating."

I completely understand that. Before I started lifting weights myself, I thought it was something you had to be really "into". I imagined complicated programmes, intimidating gym floors and people who knew exactly what they were doing. It certainly didn't feel like something that could fit around work, family and everything else life throws at us.

Then I actually started, and what surprised me was how quickly strength training quickly just became part of life. I don't spend my days thinking about how much stronger I've become. I notice it in much smaller ways. Carrying all the shopping in one trip because I can't be bothered to make two. Moving furniture without immediately looking for help. Those aren't dramatic changes, but they're the ones that have stayed with me.

Reading this study also made me think about the messages women have been given about exercise for years. So much of the conversation has focused on getting smaller, burning calories or changing how we look. Strength training quietly asks a different question altogether: what if the goal wasn't to take up less space, but to become stronger? I like that shift in perspective.

The older I get, the less interested I am in exercise as a way to change how my body looks, and the more interested I am in what it allows my body to do.

If more research keeps pointing us towards strength training as one of the best things we can do for our long-term health, brilliant. It certainly reminded me that those two or three sessions I squeeze in at home with my unbound dumbbells, are probably some of the best hours I spend all week.

Anita x