Why Lifting Weights Might Be the Best Health Decision You’ll Make

Today, we’re heading to the weight room. But this isn’t just about getting jacked, ripped, or bombing your driver 400 yards over the back net at Topgolf (though strength training can help with that). The greatest value of lifting goes beyond aesthetics or performance. It’s the most underrated tool for improving your overall health, and I’ll tell you why.

It’s a huge predictor of how long you’ll live

Here’s something everyone should know: The more muscle you have, the longer you’ll live. Research indicates a strong correlation between muscle mass and lifespan.

As we age, losing muscle leads to weakness, falls, fractures, and hospitalizations, all raising the risk of early death. Strength training slows that decline. More muscles mean better balance, stronger bones, and more independence. It also lowers your risk of heart disease by reducing blood pressure, heart rate, and stress.

Every time you lift weights, you’re not just building strength; you’re buying time. A longer, stronger life or a slow, painful decline. The choice is yours.

It helps you keep a healthy weight

Muscle acts like a sponge for sugar. When you eat carbs, they break down into glucose (sugar). Instead of letting that sugar linger in your blood, raising the risk of diabetes, or storing it as fat, your muscles pull it in and use it for fuel.

The bigger and more active your muscles are, the more glucose they absorb, helping you stay lean instead of storing excess fat.

Muscle is also metabolically active tissue, meaning it burns calories even when you're sitting still. The more muscle you have, the more fuel your body burns all day. This boosts your metabolism and helps you maintain a strong, lean body instead of gaining fat and losing strength.

You can build it at any age

When building muscle, age is not an excuse. If you put in the effort, you will see results.

A study published in JAMA (1990) found that nursing home residents aged 87–96 who lifted weights three times a week for eight weeks still made impressive gains. They found a 174% increase in overall strength and measurable gains in muscle mass. That’s like going from leg pressing 100 lbs to 274 lbs in eight weeks. One participant even went from using a walker to walking unassisted!

If they can build muscle in their 90s, so can you.

You don’t need to do much of it

One reason strength training is so underrated is that people think it requires hours in the gym, five or six days a week. But that’s not true.

In one study, just 30 to 60 minutes of strength training per week was linked to a 10–20% lower risk of death from all causes, especially from cancer and heart disease, compared to those who did no training.

Just 30 minutes a week could add 2 to 5 years to your life.

It Builds Confidence

The first rule of being in a self-confidence hole: stop digging.

Stop distracting yourself from your negative self-image and face it instead. Weed, alcohol, social media use, whatever you’re using to drown out your thoughts, delay the real work, and dig that hole deeper. When you decide to pull back from these vices and sit with those thoughts, you will realize you can change your self-confidence.

One of the most accessible and empowering ways to climb out of that hole is strength training.

Lifting weights improves your posture, which naturally helps you look and, more importantly, feel confident. It also shapes your body in ways that boost self-image and physical presence.

Additionally, studies show resistance training can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Lifting has helped me a lot. It gave me structure, purpose, and a steady stream of small wins that helped rebuild my confidence.

Next time you feel anxious or low, pay attention to your confidence before and after a solid strength training workout.

Conclusion

Given these insane benefits, I believe Everyone should add some form of strength training to their exercise routine. Whether it’s 30 minutes a week or 4 days a week, a transformation will occur in your overall health.

It still amazes me that this stuff isn’t front-page news.

Curious where to start? Here’s what I’ve been doing in the gym lately: LINK