Research

Mixed

Higher muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with reduced all-cause and cancer mortality in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness.

Prioritize resistance training for major muscle groups (upper and lower body) two or three days a week. This builds muscular strength, which is independently linked to a significantly lower risk of dying from all causes and cancer, regardless of your cardio fitness level.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders.
Jonatan R. Ruiz et al. · BMJ · 2008

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort (n=8762), long follow-up (18.9 years), rigorous adjustment for confounders, though observational design limits causal inference.

Source

Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study

Jonatan R. Ruiz et al. · BMJ · 2008

DOI 10.1136/bmj.a439

cohort · n=8762Cited 818×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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