Pumping iron can reduce your risk of dying from cancer by 40 percent, according to new research by the Swedes.
Good news for gym junkies — the findings suggest muscular strength is as important as keeping slim and a good diet in protecting you against a dreaded tumour .
The Swedish boffins recommend men do weight training at least twice a week, exercising both the upper and lower body, the UK's
Daily Telegraph reported.
When it came to this sort of stuff before, your GP would tell you to literally "get on your bike", pushing routines involving cycling and jogging, and urging blokes to swap the Krispy Kremes and KFC for some celery juice and chai tea.
But the Swedes are now saying build up muscle strength. And this is not one of those surveys by a nutjob in a white lab coat and his bonged-out box of rats — this was extensive. The team, led by scientists from the Karolinska Institute, tracked more than 8600 blokes aged between 20 and 82 for more than 20 years.
Each had regular medical check-ups that included tests of their muscular strength. We aren't sure if that included putting together one of those Ikea cabinets.
Between 1980 and 2003, they monitored how many got the big C and died from it. They found men who regularly worked out with weights and had the highest muscle strength were between 30 and 40 percent less likely to lose their life to a tumour.
Even for the blokes who had a beer gut or a high body mass index, the regular weight training was a benefit. But that doesn't mean you can eat up like Kyle Sandilands on a business-class lounge buffet — they warned that keeping a healthy weight was crucial for avoiding an early trip to the morgue.
Spartan Training Systems' director, Steve Marinakis, who has a shedload of experience in strength training and Olympic lifting, says regular weight training also helps prevent diabetes and bone density disease.
"Weights will also leave you in a better state of wellbeing, slow down the aging process, boost your metabolism, release happy endorphins, reduce stress and osteoporosis," Marinakis told
RALPH.
Your say: can weighlifting save your life?
For further information or to book a personalised training session with Steve Marinakis from Spartan Training Systems, contact him on 1300 044 799 or steve@spartantraining.com.au
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