# Why don’t you lift weights? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** diet-weight-loss\ **Created:** [August 15, 2020, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144 "2020-08-15T01:48:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 74
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144/1461 "2026-09-21T00:09:00Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > Yeah. I’m not training to get jacked. I’m training to be able to get out of bed when I’m 80. Piker. I’m aiming for dancing at 100 like Dick Van Dyke! 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144/1462 "2026-10-10T00:46:39Z")
Weightlifting is cardio, and may reduce cardiovascular disease risk and all cause mortality by 15-20%… Excerpt: Reducing body fat helps [improve cardiovascular health](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3120182/) by lowering blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Muscles are responsible for [clearing the majority](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8074531/) of the glucose from the blood. “They can actually do it without insulin, and not a lot of tissues can do that,” Dr. Wasfy said, which means that building muscles [can help prevent](https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/build-muscle-help-reverse-prediabetes) and treat insulin resistance and diabetes. While the uptake of glucose increases during exercise, the effect persists even at rest, especially as the muscles become more insulin-sensitive over time. This is why, according to the [American Heart Association](https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001189), adults who strength train have about a 15 percent reduced risk of all-cause mortality and a 17 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with adults who do no resistance training (though the same study showed similar results in people who did only cardio). [A recent study](https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2026.04.036) of more than 117,000 women followed for just over 14 years found that women 48 to 66 who did two or more hours of resistance training a week had a 20 percent lower risk of major cardiovascular disease. The women in that age group also had a 44 percent lower risk of myocardial infarction, when compared with women who did no strength training. Resistance training, contrary to what many experts once believed, is [at least as good](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37491419/) as aerobic training at lowering blood pressure, One of the limitations of studying resistance training — and why it’s taken scientists so long to understand its benefit for the heart — is that exercises like squats and bench presses are hard to track with a wearable device. That means scientists must rely on self-reported data. However, [the evidence](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10911289/) from [high quality](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12244344/), [long-term](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/60/12/874) studies that strength training alone can improve heart health has become so persuasive that in 2023, the American Heart Association [updated its position](https://www.ovid.com/jnls/circ/abstract/10.1161/cir.0000000000001189~resistance-exercise-training-in-individuals-with-and-without?redirectionsource=fulltextview) on the importance of such exercise for cardiovascular health. [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/well/move/strength-training-heart-health.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/well/move/strength-training-heart-health.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144/1463 "2026-10-10T00:48:49Z")
An article that @Dr_Paprika is sure to endorse! Gift link. [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/well/move/strength-training-heart-health.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.HlE.E9Gu.qTXPHgiZy5u6&smid=nytcore-ios-share](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/well/move/strength-training-heart-health.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HlE.E9Gu.qTXPHgiZy5u6&smid=nytcore-ios-share) > For decades physicians have advised their patients that exercises like jogging, walking, cycling and swimming will improve their cardiovascular health. In contrast, deadlifts, squats and presses were thought only to be useful for building muscle, strengthening bones and improving balance. > > This was all true — up to a point. While aerobic exercise does improve cardiovascular health, it turns out that lifting weights benefits the heart [more than was previously understood](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/20/1317), even without aerobic exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144/1464 "2026-10-10T00:52:50Z")
Buy me a Coke? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144/1465 "2026-10-10T01:48:20Z")
😀 🥤 Here’s the problem though … if you follow the links to the studies, the conclusions they present aren’t _really_ the _whole_ story. That first more than previously understood bit? It’s about efficacy on hypertension, and top of the list is isometric exercise. Then combined, and then a significant drop to the efficacy of either aerobic or dynamic strength alone. So yes it is marginally more effective on hypertension than aerobic alone is, but combined, let alone isometric, blows either of the alone arms away. The one about the 20% reduction of major cardiovascular disease risk in women with 2 hours of strength training? Also had a 40% reduction when \> 1 h was combined with meeting aerobic recommendations. Aerobic alone not a study arm. And on as I click study after study. Biggest impact is combined modest strength training with the 150 min or more moderate aerobic per week. Aerobic alone bigger impact than strength alone. Yes it _should_ be acknowledged that strength training adds to CRF. I am afraid though that articles like this oversell the strength side and give aerobic and especially the importance of a more complete combined approach of no greater time or effort commitment short shrift. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144/1466 "2026-10-10T03:23:27Z")
Not surprising for a newspaper summary. They almost always oversell the evidence. Still, I’ve always thought strength training was good for the heart and arteries. But I _recommend_ two strength training sessions and 150 minutes of an aerobic activity you enjoy, most weeks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-don-t-you-lift-weights/918144.md?page=73)