Muscle-strengthening activities, independent of one’s cardiovascular exercise, were associated with a 10% to 17% lower risk of dying generally and dying from cancer, diabetes and lung cancer.
The Palm Beach Post has a healthcare series called Aging in the Golden Years focused on navigating the financial and physical challenges to emerge as more people reach advanced age and, along with their children, confront a reality for which they will need help preparing. We want to hear what questions you have as you and your loved ones enter new territory. Email Post reporter Anne Geggis your questions at [email protected].
Move over cardio. Strong is the new skinny, according to a recent Harvard Medical School bulletin.
“Strong is the new skinny” is also the title of a book published in 2016. Still, in the flip-flopping debate which form of exercise is best, it appears that strength training, especially for women, is having a moment on social media feeds, hashtags like #strongnotskinny and in the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual top trends in fitness.
Not only did the American College of Sports Medicine publish new guidelines that emphasize power training, like fast-paced weightlifting for adults in the last year, the college’s top fitness trends for 2026 include building core strength and lifting weights. It’s crowded out previous years’ trends like high intensity interval training and outdoor activities.
“It’s a very hot topic right now,” said Avery Graziosi-Dobbs, a physical therapist at Pinecrest Rehabilitation, which is part of Delray Medical Center, explaining that in the past people saw it as a way to have impressive muscles or for enhancing athletic prowess.
“Strength training, as we now see, is very important for your functional mobility continuing through life and staying active,” Grazios-Dobbs said.
To live longer, better, you want to build muscle
A 2022 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine combined the results of 16 studies to conclude that muscle-strengthening activities, independent of one’s cardiovascular exercise, were associated with a 10% to 17% lower risk of dying generally and dying from cancer, diabetes and lung cancer.
Dr. Raj Machhar, cofounder of the Tampa General Hospital Senior Center, a joint venture between the hospital and his general practice, Greenbrook Medical, agrees that muscle mass is a key to good health even more important than how one tips the scales.
“Sarcopenia, which is the lack of muscle, is actually a better predictor of mortality than total body fat in the elderly,” Machhar said.
But he says he wouldn’t want to see anyone concentrate on weight machines, deadlifts, pull-ups and rows exclusively, leaving out heart-pumping exercises like brisk walking, biking and jumping rope.
Vigorous bursts of activity, he explained, stimulate blood flow to the brain. It triggers the body to form new blood vessels in noggins. Those new blood vessels become a weapons that staves off dementia, Machhar said.
“There was a study that came out last year that showed that just 30 minutes a week of vigorous intensity exercise reduces the risk of dementia by 30% to 40%,” Machhar said.
And don’t forget to work on your balance and flexibility, Machhar said. Single-leg stands, heel-to-toe walking, yoga and Tai Chi all fit the bill. Those go a long way toward preventing falls.
“Breaking your bones carries a very high one-year mortality rate in elderly patients,” he said.
How much cardio exercise should you do each day?
Despite the new appreciation for strength training, the American College of Sports Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Machhar still recommend that aerobic exercise comprise the largest portion of exercise time.
Here’s the breakdown for healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 65:
Moderate intensity aerobic activity for 30 minutes a day, five days a week or about 60 to 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic exercise every week.
Regular strength training, which the CDC recommends two days a week and Machhar recommends for 45 minutes per session, a couple of days a week.
“And try to incorporate some balance and flexibility in there,” Machhar said.
Doing a variety of activities to meet these recommendations is also important, but not as important as consistently exercising, according to Chelsea Trimble, an occupational therapist at Pinecrest Rehabilitation at Delray Medical Center.
The biggest challenge is getting people to stick with a plan to move around.
Whether the person has ever exercised is a huge predictor of how they’ll recover from the accidents, falls, illnesses that send them to rehabilitation, she said.
“When people don’t have enough strength, it makes everyday activities such as even standing up from the chair, getting dressed or showering, much more difficult than if an individual had been exercising,” Trimble said.
Her colleague, Graziosi-Dobbs, the physical therapist, says it’s never too late to start.
“I’ve done strength training with 92-year-olds using weighted medicine balls,” she said.The Palm Beach Post series, Aging in the Golden Years, focuses on navigating the financial and physical challenges that arise as more people reach advanced age. Thanks to our partner and fiscal sponsor, Journalism Funding Partners, verified 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, tax ID #84-2968843, you can invest in the future of this reporting on the healthcare issues that matter most to Floridians. Make your tax-deductible donation today and support local journalism that serves the Palm Beach community.
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Anne Geggis is statewide reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA, reporting on health and senior issues. If you have news tips, please send them to [email protected]. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at
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