Exercising regularly with weights is linked to lower risk of death from any factor, except cancer, finds a research undertaken in older adults.
If weekly exercise routine ensures to include weights and aerobic activities, it seems to have a cumulative effect, the findings suggest.
Current guidelines for physical activity of adults recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity weekly, or a minimum of 75 minutes of intensive aerobic activity, or an equal combination of the two – generally referred to as moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA).
Besides, adults are recommended to include activities that involve all major muscle groups. While aerobic exercise is consistently related with lower risk of death, how weights might have similar effects is not clear yet.
This led researchers to evaluate jointly and separately the potential impact of aerobic activities and exercising with weights on the risk of death among older adults.
The study involved drawing participants from Colorectal, Prostate, Lung, Ovarian cancer screening trial. The study commenced in 1993 to include 154, 897 men and women between 55 and 74 years of age from 10 different cancer centers in the U.S.
In 2006, 104,002 participants were additionally asked if they exercised with weights over the past year, and if the response was yes, how often they did anything from less than once a month to several times a week. The participants were also asked about the duration and frequency of moderate as well as intensive physical activity over the past year.
For the study, moderate intensity is described as ‘activity involving light sweat or the one that increased breathing and heart rate to moderately high state, and vigorous activity as ‘intensive enough involving sweat or increasing heart rate and breathing to very high state.
