New Study Finds That Just an Hour a Week of Weight Training Can Have Positive Benefits

A newly completed study, although very limited in scope, has highlighted how powerful even a small amount of weight training can benefit a person.

The two-month study of 42 healthy adult men and women determined that about an hour a week of weight training provided significant gain in muscle mass and strength, from two 30-minute sessions of resistance exercises each week.

In each session, the participants completed nine common upper and lower body gym exercises, repeating each move 8 to 10 times until their muscles felt fatigued, but not necessarily exhausted.

It is commonly known that stronger, healthier muscles protect against several known diseases, as well as just general frailty, which can lead to premature death. The test was done to determine what the lowest level of lifting might be to provide benefits, so that people who claim they don’t have the time could still benefit from what would be the minimum of time needing to be invested.

The study, published in April, put together a simple full body, based workout with exercises, focused on the shoulders, arms, legs , back and core. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 40, all of whom already had some resistance training.

Interestingly, half of the volunteers continue to lift until their muscles couldn’t lift any more each time. The other half lifted only until their muscles felt challenged and tired, but did not reach what’s known as failure, where he could’ve done a few more repetitions if they had to.

So, none of us will have any more excuses that we don’t have the time. The changes for the positive apparently were roughly the same between men and women, and those that lifted to failure or those that had a few reps in reserve. And yes, the study was relatively short term, lasting only eight weeks and involved mostly healthy adults. But it’s quite likely that that would apply to older people as well. The study was published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise in April, so there is no excuse to get off your collective butts, grab those dumbbells and start moving!