"Strength training in a gym and doing bodyweight exercises seemed to confer roughly equivalent benefits. "
So no, bro, you don't have to lift.
Just buy a yoga mat and start doing press-ups / sit-ups / dips etc
That what we were told in the military back in the noughties and it makes sense; wherever you are in the world you can still do your daily sets. No need for weights and bars; a bath towel on the floor of a hotel room suffices.
The single most important thing is to do something that loads your muscles. Lifting weights is great. Bodyweight exercises are great. Swinging a kettlebell is great.
Too many beginners get caught up in picking the right program, or acquiring the right gear, or planning the perfect routine. It's far more important to just get started with something. Anything. You can optimize as you go and research more, but focus on making it a consistent habit first and foremost.
The paper defines gym-based strength training as "working out at a gym/weight training/exercise biking". That is, participants in the study were merely asked if they had done one of those three things in the past four weeks, and if they had, they were considered to have done "gym-based strength training".
This is of course already flawed methodology: using an exercise bike consists of a very, very large number of repetitions of a very, very sub-maximal load. This is not gym-based strength training in any form.
Checking whether you've engaged in the activity "working out at a gym" is also a very poor indicator of having participated in consistent and effective strength work. The vast majority of individuals do stupid shit and make no progress, year-after-year.
So, I suspect the reason that the two categories confer roughly equivalent benefits is because when you perform both in an ineffective and poor manner, all you're really doing is exercising (not training), and the exact form of exercise becomes irrelevant.
If you were to do a study that was tightly controlled/regulated and consisted, say, of doing a linear progressive overload program (where you see untrained individuals gain tens of pounds of muscle and put on hundreds of pounds onto their squats) I theorize you'd see very different results. The physiology of a muscular individual who squats over 400 lbs is very different from the physiology of a skinny individual who does push-ups every morning and morbidity is rooted in physiology.
Finally, there is no bodyweight exercise in existence that can provide adequate loading of the posterior chain/lower-body. The musculature is too vast/large and doing a bunch of air squats doesn't provide adequate stress to introduce an adaptation in all but the most untrained of individuals. Adequately stressing the smaller musculature of the upper body is easier--especially at first--but even here adaptation quickly slows due to the inability to effectively load the body in a progressive manner.
So no, bro, you probably have to lift. And yes, bro, once again we see that the entire field of exercise science is basically nonsense.
> Just buy a yoga mat and start doing press-ups / sit-ups / dips etc
No, don't. Seriously. If you want a long term routine to build strength and stay healthy (which is what we're talking about here), you can't just say "do exclusively upper body pressing for the rest of your life". Floor exercises are great, but none of them work your posterior chain in any meaningful way, which is almost always a weak point just due to modern life of constantly hunching over a keyboard. It's also very difficult to give your legs adequate intensity. It's not impossible, but it's hard.
At a bare minimum you need a bar for pullups. If you want to avoid barbells that's totally fine, but you need a real routine with a clear progression that isn't going to leave you with serious muscle imbalances after a year. https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ is a good place to start if you really do want to do bodyweight strength training (although even they recommend barbell squats and deadlifts).
To second this, I slowly built up doing leg raises/push ups/planks since high school as a habit, I've never skipped more than one day at a time - it's astounding how good of shape I am in now, without ever having to go to a gym or worry about having the time.
Start super small, and increase when it feels too easy. That's all! You can skip every other day if you need, but never twice in a row. Then it becomes a habit in my experience.
Really depends on the person, I think. I would lose interest without being able to easily see progression week after week in the form of increasing weight on the bar. At least in the beginning.
I've seen studies confirming the inverse relationship between strength and all cause mortality numerous times. It seems pretty well established by now.
Personally, I started lifting several years ago, and it's been the greatest change in my health in my life. I lost a lot of weight, my resting heart rate is way down, everyday tasks are easier. I move better, and I just feel better overall. Plus, it's a wonderful discipline for building determination and grit. I am certain that most people's lives would be significantly improved by the addition of a strength training program.
Yeah, starting a lifting program was a massive change in my life. Huge physical, emotional, and social benefits - and I quite enjoyed it! I have a feeling that I'm going to be seriously de-loading and basically restarting after we can finally go back to the gym.
I have yet to read the methods used, but my low prior leaves me somewhat skeptical even after reading this article. The vast body of pre-existing material indicates "aerobic exercise" is the primary driver of health, with strength training obviously delivering some aerobic exercise too, but not nearly as much as some other forms of exercise.
The way these studies are described in the article, it sounds like they might have mislabeled a bunch of confounders as signal.
(E.g. people who regularly get aerobic exercise -- especially as they are older -- have greater muscle mass and are less likely to die. Heck, just that people exercise at all in any capacity is a signal of health, which lowers risk of death.)
Edit: That said, I believe some level of strength training is critical to avoid injury or overstressing particular muscles, even when your interest is primarily aerobic exercise.
The FNIH Sarcopenia Project [1] and the paper Associations of Muscle Mass and Strength with All-Cause Mortality among US Older Adults [2] are about assessing age related decline.
Neither are about how strength and cardiovascular training impacts mortality; the focus of the OP.
Especially with most of us shut at home, I've found kettlebell to be excellent as medium for strength and conditioning.
The focus on the posterior chain helped resolve a lot of back issues I had from sitting at a desk all day. I could feel my posture improving in a week or so.
Unfortunately it does have a bit of learning curve to it, but it's still something I recommend friends try as an effective quick workout.
For strength training, you want exercises that can be performed with increasingly heavier weights (e.g. barbell exercises). This is how you get stronger. If you always lift the same weight you won't get stronger.
kettlebells are awesome. You have to start at the lower weights though and resist the temptation to be adventurous with them. It's my "home gym". A 6x4 mat, a jump rope and a kettlebell.
I’ve been doing 100 pushups a day, 6 days/week (1 rest day on Sunday) for about 3 months now.
Before I used to get back aches and had an awful form. Now I feel great. After having a kid, it has been hard to find time to go to the gym. Two sets of pushups, one in morning, and one in evening is easy to get in. Takes 5 mins and you feel pumped.
Also been having more sex. So that’s been a great for health too.
Be careful about doing too much pushing without pulling, though. The bodyweightfitness subreddit is full of people asking about doing a high number of pushups daily and people always warn about imbalances, shoulder impingement, etc.
Get started with any exercise is difficult! Soon after I commence, I find exercise-induced injuries that force me to rest until the pain goes away. A younger me would ignore the pain bit now I'm not so invincible anymore.
More exercise also necessitates more sleep, which can be hard to do when there isn't enough of time.
What sort of timescale do you mean by "soon"? When you start doing a new exercise regime, it's really common to experience DOMS[1] for the first few weeks. It really feels like the end of the world (personal experience) but it's not actually an indication of real injury and it's generally safe to push through it if you can (and doing so can actually alleviate the pain, at least temporarily). Distinguishing between DOMS (where it's safe to push through) and real injury (where you definitely should not) comes with a bit of practice, and honestly, compared with the few times I've hurt myself for real... DOMS felt worse. Except when I slipped while holding weight and broke my toe. Strongly recommend against that :)
If you're experiencing exercise-induced injuries immediately during a workout (and if you have a budget for this), it might be good to talk to someone about what you're trying to do. Some gym plans include a bit of consultation time with a staff trainer, and they can probably help you work around whatever the problem is, sometimes simple adjustments can help (particularly anything involving preexisting shoulder damage, most of the commonly-recommended shoulder exercises have substitutes that are less risky for already-damaged shoulders).
You might be starting too aggressively. A successful program is going to start you lighter than you're capable of and progress you over time. Ego and eagerness get you injured quickly, and ultimately work against your goals.
You are probably not exercising property. You either have poor execution, use too much weight, use exercises that don't agree if your body mechanics or a combination of the three.
Feeling sore in the muscles is normal, feeling joint pain is not.
It's true you need more rest/sleep but I found you can work around it if you don't care too about putting on muscle and thus work out less frequently and with less intensity, just for the health benefits.
I do believe exercise and strength is helpful for long term health, but these studies obviously don't control for the fact that people with poor health / health conditions are both more likely to die in the future and less likely to exercise / develop strength in the present...
Aerobic training is all about the heart rate. You have to get it up to around 120 or higher (and keep it there for a while) to have a training effect. Unless you are REALLY unfit, walking is probably not enough.
You can also run/walk in intervals as long as you keep the heart rate up. If you want to get fit, a heart rate monitor is a great investment (something like a polar h10 can pair with your smartphone).
I think initially, yes, but you might rather quickly be walking into diminishing returns. The idea is to get your heart rate up and force your body to build more efficient ways to create/consume energy. If you are in good shape, walking might not do this unless you're thinking of long-ass multi hour walks.
But there are other aerobic forms of training than running!
Last I checked, the aerobic range is a quantified goal so you should be able to alter your circumstances to hit the range while walking. Personally I've been walking for weight loss and exercise since 2013 and a lot of it easily qualifies as aerobic, just depending on the incline, pace, weight carried, and other factors.
Got myself an elliptical machine second hand for $50. Great for getting your heart rate up without a lot of impact on the spine. The heart rate formula for good cardio is 90% of 220 minus your age. I can hit that easily on the machine. I highly recommend it.
Where I live the average age of farmers is over 65. Some people complain about the inefficiency of small scale farming carried out by many older individuals, and want to stop trade protections, and subsidies etc, and replace everything with robots and drones. A study like this shows one dimension of how much value there is in letting these people carry one working and not becoming a burden on health budgets.
Note that this isn't highlighting any new information, the article itself was from 2017 and was itself referring to earlier studies.
(Not to discount the overall thesis which is basically "muscle mass good," but if you're relatively up to date on this sort of thing there's nothing novel in this article for you).
I recall (vaguely) reading long ago that lifting weights shortens muscles and also reduces flexibility. Do people who lift weights or do rigorous strength training also complement it with yoga or other stretching exercises?
That is mostly outdated and nonsense dogma. The average person living in the Western world doing a barbell strength training program incorporating squats and deadlifts will see a drastic increase in their flexibility. Most people in the Western world are unable to squat (or at least, do it for long periods or without discomfort), losing the ability as they grow out of toddlerhood.[1][2] Squatting and deadlifting also improve flexibility and strength in your upper back and shoulder muscles.
Yoga is always a good idea anyway, and may help to get to the next level. And you should stretch before or after any workout, of any type. But barbell strength training alone will put you ahead of the pack.
As someone who's serious about lifting weights (at least 5 times a week), I can tell you that I almost have zero flexibility these days, my lack of stretching is also causing all types of pain. I sometimes have issues walking because some muscles are too tight.
Doing yoga and certain stretches definitely helps, but it needs to compliment your training. I tend to do 15 minutes of stretches in the morning, and then 15-20 minutes of yoga in the evening before going to bed, that has seriously improved my life. (As in, I don't have muscle pain when doing regular activities)
Kettlebells. Search youtube for "Enter the Kettlebell" with Pavel Tsatsouline; easiest, best way to start, is with the "Simple and Sinister" program, which is just kettlebell swings and Turkish getups.
I've found that developing a workout habit is a gateway to other healthy habits. You tend have less stress and sleep better, which improves workout performance thereby creating a virtuous cycle. The drive to improve workout performance leads you to make changes to your diet and watch other health indicators more closely. It's all connected.
[+] [-] dingaling|5 years ago|reply
So no, bro, you don't have to lift.
Just buy a yoga mat and start doing press-ups / sit-ups / dips etc
That what we were told in the military back in the noughties and it makes sense; wherever you are in the world you can still do your daily sets. No need for weights and bars; a bath towel on the floor of a hotel room suffices.
[+] [-] PragmaticPulp|5 years ago|reply
Too many beginners get caught up in picking the right program, or acquiring the right gear, or planning the perfect routine. It's far more important to just get started with something. Anything. You can optimize as you go and research more, but focus on making it a consistent habit first and foremost.
[+] [-] zfnmxt|5 years ago|reply
This is of course already flawed methodology: using an exercise bike consists of a very, very large number of repetitions of a very, very sub-maximal load. This is not gym-based strength training in any form.
Checking whether you've engaged in the activity "working out at a gym" is also a very poor indicator of having participated in consistent and effective strength work. The vast majority of individuals do stupid shit and make no progress, year-after-year.
So, I suspect the reason that the two categories confer roughly equivalent benefits is because when you perform both in an ineffective and poor manner, all you're really doing is exercising (not training), and the exact form of exercise becomes irrelevant.
If you were to do a study that was tightly controlled/regulated and consisted, say, of doing a linear progressive overload program (where you see untrained individuals gain tens of pounds of muscle and put on hundreds of pounds onto their squats) I theorize you'd see very different results. The physiology of a muscular individual who squats over 400 lbs is very different from the physiology of a skinny individual who does push-ups every morning and morbidity is rooted in physiology.
Finally, there is no bodyweight exercise in existence that can provide adequate loading of the posterior chain/lower-body. The musculature is too vast/large and doing a bunch of air squats doesn't provide adequate stress to introduce an adaptation in all but the most untrained of individuals. Adequately stressing the smaller musculature of the upper body is easier--especially at first--but even here adaptation quickly slows due to the inability to effectively load the body in a progressive manner.
So no, bro, you probably have to lift. And yes, bro, once again we see that the entire field of exercise science is basically nonsense.
[+] [-] mikenew|5 years ago|reply
No, don't. Seriously. If you want a long term routine to build strength and stay healthy (which is what we're talking about here), you can't just say "do exclusively upper body pressing for the rest of your life". Floor exercises are great, but none of them work your posterior chain in any meaningful way, which is almost always a weak point just due to modern life of constantly hunching over a keyboard. It's also very difficult to give your legs adequate intensity. It's not impossible, but it's hard.
At a bare minimum you need a bar for pullups. If you want to avoid barbells that's totally fine, but you need a real routine with a clear progression that isn't going to leave you with serious muscle imbalances after a year. https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ is a good place to start if you really do want to do bodyweight strength training (although even they recommend barbell squats and deadlifts).
[+] [-] buildbot|5 years ago|reply
Start super small, and increase when it feels too easy. That's all! You can skip every other day if you need, but never twice in a row. Then it becomes a habit in my experience.
[+] [-] xeromal|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jvolkman|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pbuzbee|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxheadrum|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cheald|5 years ago|reply
Personally, I started lifting several years ago, and it's been the greatest change in my health in my life. I lost a lot of weight, my resting heart rate is way down, everyday tasks are easier. I move better, and I just feel better overall. Plus, it's a wonderful discipline for building determination and grit. I am certain that most people's lives would be significantly improved by the addition of a strength training program.
[+] [-] shpongled|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gHosts|5 years ago|reply
Ahh, but which way does the relationship go..?
Unsurprisingly if I'm dying of something really serious and lying in bed sick as a dog.....
...I lose muscle mass.
[+] [-] 627467|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kqr|5 years ago|reply
The way these studies are described in the article, it sounds like they might have mislabeled a bunch of confounders as signal.
(E.g. people who regularly get aerobic exercise -- especially as they are older -- have greater muscle mass and are less likely to die. Heck, just that people exercise at all in any capacity is a signal of health, which lowers risk of death.)
Edit: That said, I believe some level of strength training is critical to avoid injury or overstressing particular muscles, even when your interest is primarily aerobic exercise.
[+] [-] sradman|5 years ago|reply
Neither are about how strength and cardiovascular training impacts mortality; the focus of the OP.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3991146/
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28991040/
[+] [-] maurys|5 years ago|reply
The focus on the posterior chain helped resolve a lot of back issues I had from sitting at a desk all day. I could feel my posture improving in a week or so.
Unfortunately it does have a bit of learning curve to it, but it's still something I recommend friends try as an effective quick workout.
[+] [-] lottin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gautamdivgi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nojvek|5 years ago|reply
Before I used to get back aches and had an awful form. Now I feel great. After having a kid, it has been hard to find time to go to the gym. Two sets of pushups, one in morning, and one in evening is easy to get in. Takes 5 mins and you feel pumped.
Also been having more sex. So that’s been a great for health too.
[+] [-] slazaro|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aluminussoma|5 years ago|reply
More exercise also necessitates more sleep, which can be hard to do when there isn't enough of time.
[+] [-] novas0x2a|5 years ago|reply
If you're experiencing exercise-induced injuries immediately during a workout (and if you have a budget for this), it might be good to talk to someone about what you're trying to do. Some gym plans include a bit of consultation time with a staff trainer, and they can probably help you work around whatever the problem is, sometimes simple adjustments can help (particularly anything involving preexisting shoulder damage, most of the commonly-recommended shoulder exercises have substitutes that are less risky for already-damaged shoulders).
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness
[+] [-] cheald|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reinkaos|5 years ago|reply
Feeling sore in the muscles is normal, feeling joint pain is not.
It's true you need more rest/sleep but I found you can work around it if you don't care too about putting on muscle and thus work out less frequently and with less intensity, just for the health benefits.
[+] [-] ummonk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] graeme|5 years ago|reply
I’ve never liked jogging, but I do strength training, about an hour of walking most days, and occasional sprints.
[+] [-] patricklouys|5 years ago|reply
You can also run/walk in intervals as long as you keep the heart rate up. If you want to get fit, a heart rate monitor is a great investment (something like a polar h10 can pair with your smartphone).
[+] [-] kqr|5 years ago|reply
But there are other aerobic forms of training than running!
[+] [-] themodelplumber|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jduejfkd|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxheadrum|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] totetsu|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JeremyNT|5 years ago|reply
(Not to discount the overall thesis which is basically "muscle mass good," but if you're relatively up to date on this sort of thing there's nothing novel in this article for you).
[+] [-] AnonHP|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] triceratops|5 years ago|reply
Yoga is always a good idea anyway, and may help to get to the next level. And you should stretch before or after any workout, of any type. But barbell strength training alone will put you ahead of the pack.
1. https://qz.com/quartzy/1121077/to-solve-problems-caused-by-s...
2. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/03/can-you-d...
[+] [-] woutr_be|5 years ago|reply
Doing yoga and certain stretches definitely helps, but it needs to compliment your training. I tend to do 15 minutes of stretches in the morning, and then 15-20 minutes of yoga in the evening before going to bed, that has seriously improved my life. (As in, I don't have muscle pain when doing regular activities)
[+] [-] com2kid|5 years ago|reply
Higher level yoga practitioners can also be very strong. Static positions can be incredibly difficult to hold and a great way to build strength!
(Yoga is not hypertrophic, but it can build good endurance)
[+] [-] thatoldfool|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] totetsu|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tus88|5 years ago|reply
People who work out tend to practice a range of healthy habits.
[+] [-] triceratops|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ykevinator|5 years ago|reply
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