Want to live longer? Hit the weights!

I came across this study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Medicine which found that individuals with higher muscle mass had significantly reduced risk of all cause mortality. This is really interesting as the traditional way of assigning mortality risk associated with ‘size’ has been to use Body Mass Index (BMI) which includes both muscle and fat mass.

So what are the implications of this study if you want to live longer?

While managing your energy ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ is important to ensure you remain within a healthy weight range, this study demonstrates the value of incorporating resistance or weight training into your week. It’s well known that we lose muscle mass as we age and also if we are sedentary for large parts of our day. Resistance training is a key way to address this and ensure that we maintain or even improve our muscle mass.

-Kristin Lewis