Weightlifting vs. Aerobic Exercise: Which is Best?

The science is in: Do either, ideally both.

Jessica Gorzelitz is a certified trainer, a weightlifter, and a non-competitive powerlifter, and she’s got some thoughts on whether strength training or aerobic workouts are best for health and longevity. Do both, her new study suggests, settling any debate there might have been.

Gorzelitz, an assistant professor of health promotion at the University of Iowa, put her passion and her PhD in kinesiology and exercise science to work, studying the benefits of weightlifting versus moderate to vigorous aerobic activity. Her team analyzed data on more than 99,713 U.S. men and women who averaged 71 years old in 2006, when they were surveyed on their workout habits. Over the next decade, 28,477 of them died, revealing some interesting survival statistics:

• Working out with weights was linked to a 9% to 22% lower risk of death compared to sedentary individuals (the range relates to frequency of working out, with one or two sessions per week bringing a 14% lower risk, for example).
• Aerobic activity without weight was linked to a 24% to 34% lower risk of death compared to the sedentary group.
• The risk of death was 41% to 47% lower among those who met most of the minimum recommended guidelines for aerobic activity and worked out with weights once or twice a week.

The study, published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, can’t prove cause and effect, and one notable limitation is that it used self-reported data from a specific time period, as is common in these sorts of studies. But the findings echo other research that’s shown weightlifting offers many health benefits.

Here’s one: Once you turn 30, you start losing muscle unless you work to counter the natural effects of aging. By age 70, you’ll have lost about 40% of the muscle you once had, not just making you less capable overall but greatly increasing the risk of a hip-fracturing fall. But contrary to some popular conceptions, you can build muscle at any age.

Growing body of work

Gorzelitz’s research involved only older people, but she said it’s possible the findings could apply to younger adults, too.

Interestingly, earlier this year a different group of researchers published a review of studies on muscle-strengthening workouts in adults of all ages, finding that 30 to 60 minutes of it is linked to a 10–20% lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, diabetes and all causes.

Two other studies this year compared weightlifting to aerobics.

Overweight people who cut calories can lose weight with weightlifting on par with aerobic exercise, and also maintain muscle mass, a study published in Obesity Reviews concluded.

“Usually when we talk about obesity, body composition or weight loss, we only hear about aerobic exercise,” said study team member Pedro Lopez at Edith Cowan University in Australia. “This paper shows we can use resistance training and achieve meaningful effects with a diet based on caloric reduction. We can reduce body fat percentage, whole-body fat mass, body weight and BMI.”

Weightlifting or other resistance training can help you sleep, too, and maybe even more so than aerobic workouts, according to another study from this year. People who were getting less than seven hours sleep added 40 minutes to their nightly slumber, on average, after a year of resistance workouts, compared to about 23 minutes more for those who undertook an aerobic exercise program.

“While both aerobic and resistance exercise are important for overall health, our results suggest that resistance exercises may be superior when it comes to getting better ZZZs at night,” said study team member Angelique Brellenthin, PhD, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University. “Resistance exercise significantly improved sleep duration and sleep efficiency, which are critical indicators of sleep quality that reflects how well a person falls asleep and stays asleep throughout the night.

A little open secret: Just 13 minutes of weightlifting, three days a week, can build muscle and improve endurance.

Here’s what to do

Gorzelitz advises all adults to aim for at least the minimum recommended threshold of 150 minutes a week of moderate activity, somewhere between “conversation is easy” and “you can hear your breathing but you’re not out of breath,” or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, plus a couple days a week of muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity.

If you’ve never lifted weights, there’s no reason you can’t start today, no matter how old you are. Consider Mike Harrington, a state-champion powerlifter who never lifted a finger until he was 69:

Just proceed stepwise, and seek advice from a personal trainer or healthcare professional before starting any new vigorous activity. If you can’t reach the suggested minimum, do what you can: Any amount will improve your fitness and up the odds of a longer and healthier life.

“Our results suggest that some is better than none, and it’s okay to get started slowly and progress as strength and confidence increases,” Gorzelitz told me. “It is important to work all the major muscle groups of the body — the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.”

Other activities can fit the bill, too — yoga is a great way to work out the entire body, for example. Or simple at-home workouts that incorporate body-weight exercises like push-ups, squats and burpees. More suggestions here:

Gorzelitz follows the advice she dishes out, by the way, and puts an emphasis on making her weightlifting time an untouchable priority.

“Time in the gym is my decompression time, it’s social for me as I see my friends, I connect with my community, and I’m able to escape from work and invest in my health,” she said. “I want to be a strong, powerful old lady, and I know the work I do now will pay dividends later. For me, it’s important to incorporate aerobic exercise into my day because my weightlifting is my protected time so that is easy for me to achieve. I have a dog that keeps me active and helps me to walk for aerobic activity.”

Dogs are great. So is walking. And now you know: So is weightlifting.

I’m the author of Make Sleep Your Superpower: A Guide to Greater Health, Happiness & Productivity (paperback or Kindle version). Your support makes my health writing possible. You can sign up for emails when I publish on Medium, or join Medium to directly support me and gain full access to all Medium stories. Find me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin. — Rob