Experts recommend 90 minutes strength weekly

iNews reported on June 3 that adults may need to spend more time on strength work than many current gym habits allow, pointing to research that linked 90 to 120 minutes of resistance training a week with the lowest death rates. The article said the finding comes as UK guidance tells adults to do muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days a week, but does not set a weekly minute target. That gap has left room for people to interpret the advice loosely. The piece argued that casual or unstructured sessions may not be enough if the goal is to maintain muscle and strength over time. ### Where does the 90-minute figure come from? iNews said the 90-minute benchmark was drawn from a study cited in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and described by Harvard epidemiologist Dr Yiwen Zhang. According to the article, the research analyzed three large U.S. studies that tracked nearly 150,000 people for up to 30 years. It found the lowest death rate among people who did between 90 and 120 minutes of strength training per week. The article said the result held regardless of how much aerobic exercise people did in addition to resistance work. It also said the analysis linked strength training not only to lower rates of early death, but also to lower risks tied to heart disease, cancer and brain diseases. Those claims were attributed in the piece to the study findings and to Zhang. (inews.co.uk) ### How does that compare with official UK advice? The UK Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidance, published in 2019, says adults should do activities that build muscle strength on at least two days a week. The government’s accompanying infographic gives examples including gym work, yoga and carrying heavy bags, but it does not specify a total weekly duration for strength training. (inews.co.uk) GOV.UK also keeps the better-known aerobic target separate: at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or a combination of both. That means the 90-minute figure reported by iNews is not a formal change in government guidance; it is a research-based estimate discussed alongside existing recommendations. (gov.uk) ### Why did the article say casual gym visits may fall short? iNews said some people may be reading the “two days a week” recommendation as roughly 60 minutes of total weekly strength work. The article said surveys have found only about a quarter of people in the UK do any strength training at all twice weekly. In that context, the piece argued that simply turning up at the gym without a clear plan may not add up to the volume used in the studies it cited. (gov.uk) The article’s framing was practical rather than prescriptive. It said “lifting weights little and often can add up to better health,” while also suggesting that duration matters alongside frequency. That is why the piece emphasized structured resistance sessions and tracking what is actually being completed over a week. ### What counts as strength training in practice? (inews.co.uk) GOV.UK lists gym-based work, yoga and carrying heavy bags as examples of activities that build muscle and bone strength. The iNews article also referred to lifting weights and bodyweight-style movements such as squats and lunges. Taken together, those examples suggest the issue is not one single exercise but whether the activity is substantial enough to challenge muscles repeatedly across the week. (inews.co.uk) The iNews report did not present the 90 minutes as a mandatory threshold for every person. It presented it as the level associated in the cited research with the lowest death rate, and as a prompt for readers to measure their actual weekly resistance work more closely. ### What should readers watch next? June 3 is the publication date of the iNews report that brought the research to a wider audience. (gov.uk) The standing UK benchmark remains the 2019 Chief Medical Officers’ guidance on strength activity at least two days a week, available on GOV.UK, while any future change to formal public-health advice would also appear there. (inews.co.uk)