The Relationship Between Strength And Your Health

We’re betting you probably want to avoid disease so that you are able to perform all the hobbies and activities that you wish to do.

In fact, you probably want to be able to do so for your entire life, right?

There's a physical quality that underlies your ability to continue doing what you enjoy for the rest of your life — muscle strength!

In this article we discuss the direct relationship between strength and health, including the positive influence of strength on long-term disease risk, including conditions like diabetes and arthritis, and even the risk of early death. Let’s dive in…

A study conducted at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, looked at the relationship between muscular strength and long-term risk of disease in men. In total, 8,672 men participated, between the ages of 20 and 80.

At the start of the study, each participant performed one-repetition maximum tests for the bench press and leg press. These tests are generally considered good ways to represent the muscular strength of the upper and lower body.

The scores of the bench press and leg press one-rep maximums were combined to form one overall “strength score” for each participant. The men were then grouped into thirds based on their overall strength scores (top third, middle third, and lower third). Comprehensive medical evaluations were also performed at the start of the study to make sure no detrimental health conditions already existed.

After an average follow-up of 19 years, deaths were surveyed. All three groups were assessed by risk of death from any cause, as well as risk of death from either heart disease or cancer.

Before getting into the results, it’s well known that people who strength train tend to have better overall health habits than people who don’t. For example, strength training participants are more likely to be physically active, smoke less, and eat healthier diets.

To minimize the interference of other causative factors like these, the researchers adjusted the data to eliminate the influence of physical activity level, age, smoking status, alcohol intake, body mass index, and family history of heart disease.

What were the results? The level of muscular strength each participant started with was strongly associated with better long-term health.

Compared to the lowest strength level group, the middle group had a 28% lower death rate from any cause or death due to cancer only.

The middle group also experienced 26% fewer deaths from heart disease. The death rates for the strongest group were very similar to the middle group in all three categories.

The lesson here is that for health, men with even a moderate amount of strength have a greatly reduced risk of early death.