Peter Attia: Strength Training for Health Is a Key to Longevity

How much muscle mass do you have? How’s your muscle mass connected to your overall health?

According to Peter Attia, strength training is a key to longevity. If you want to live a long and healthy life, you need to prevent chronic disease. Metabolic health is a major aspect of this prevention, and it’s easier to achieve metabolic health when you have high muscle mass.

Keep reading to learn about strength training for health over the long term.

Peter Attia on Strength Training

According to physician Peter Attia, strength training should be part of your exercise regimen if you want to add quality years to your life. He recommends building as much muscle as possible. Research shows that, the bigger and stronger your muscles are, the longer you’ll live and the healthier you’ll be.

One reason for this is that, the more muscle mass you have, the easier it is to be metabolically healthy. Attia states that muscle tissue is better at metabolizing glucose than other parts of your body, So, the more muscle you have, the easier it is to keep your blood sugar low and stable. Additionally, building muscle increases your capacity to store glucose as glycogen for short-term energy consumption rather than storing it as potentially harmful fat.

(Shortform note: Because your muscle mass significantly determines how efficiently you can metabolize and store glucose, gaining muscle can result in major metabolic improvements even if you’re still carrying an unhealthy amount of fat. One study of overweight and obese adults found that the third of participants with the most muscle boasted 45% greater insulin sensitivity than the third of participants with the least muscle. This meant that the cells of more muscular participants could more effectively absorb glucose from their blood, warding off chronic disease.)

Unfortunately, around the time someone turns 65, they begin losing muscle at an alarming rate. Unless you build up above-average muscle mass before this time, your muscle mass will drop low enough during your elderly years to leave you significantly more vulnerable to chronic disease and injury. Attia recommends regular strength training for health (specifically, weightlifting) to prevent this as much as possible.

(Shortform note: Although extreme muscle degeneration typically doesn’t happen until you’re 65, experts note that without conscious intervention, you’ll start losing significant muscle by age 30—3 to 5% of your muscle mass every decade. Thus, starting your strength training early can yield significant benefits long before “old age.”)

However, Attia emphasizes that, if you perform intense strength training exercises poorly, they can do more harm than good—specifically, if they cause you to badly injure yourself. Train yourself to use the proper form when practicing strength exercises, and use lighter weights until you’ve built up the bodily awareness you need to avoid injury when lifting heavier weights.

(Shortform note: In The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss contends that most injuries during strength training are caused by imbalances—when one side of your body (or one half of the same muscle group) is much stronger and more developed than the other. If any of your muscles feel imbalanced in this way, make sure to correct it before attempting any full-strength exercises. Additionally, using weights that are too light can sometimes cause you to develop improper form, so ensure that you’re using weights heavy enough to realistically replicate the strain that the full-strength exercise will put on your body.)

Peter Attia: Strength Training for Health Is a Key to Longevity