New research suggests that older women who focus on building and maintaining muscle strength may live longer and healthier lives than those who rely solely on aerobic exercise. A landmark study published in JAMA Network Open, which tracked thousands of women over 62 years old, found that grip strength was a particularly strong indicator of longevity, regardless of whether participants met government recommendations for aerobic activity .

Why Does Grip Strength Matter More Than You'd Think?

Researchers from the Women's Health Initiative, a long-running study that has followed tens of thousands of women since the 1990s, visited participants' homes to measure grip strength, blood markers of inflammation, and activity levels. When they analyzed data from about 5,500 women in their 60s to 90s, the findings were striking: more muscle strength directly correlated with living longer .

Epidemiologist Michael LaMonte, who led the study, explained why grip strength serves as such a revealing health marker. "Even as we age, most of us cannot avoid using our quads, hamstrings and glutes, they power everyday activities like getting up out of bed," he noted. "Yet the upper body can more easily fall into disuse. The subsequent decline can present itself in small, but meaningful, ways. When the jar gets harder to open, it could be a sign that something is changing, maybe it is an underlying disease, maybe it is a decline in muscle mass. Either way, it should be a yellow caution sign" .

"Grip strength is a useful marker. It is not the training prescription. The broader message is that overall strength matters, and general strength training is a big deal for healthy ageing," said Stuart Phillips, a kinesiology professor at McMaster University.

Stuart Phillips, Kinesiology Professor at McMaster University

What Type of Strength Training Actually Works?

The good news is that building strength doesn't require expensive gym memberships or complicated routines. For older women, even basic resistance exercises can produce meaningful results. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that healthy adults perform full-body resistance training twice a week, and the approach is flexible enough to fit most lifestyles .

Practical strength-building options include:

• Resistance bands: Affordable, portable, and effective for building muscle without heavy weights
• Body weight exercises: Using your own weight for movements like wall push-offs or modified squats
• Household items: For women in their late 70s and beyond, lifting soup cans or other light objects can be sufficient to stimulate muscles
• Water aerobics combined with resistance: A low-impact option that adds strength work to cardio

The overarching goal is simply to stimulate those muscles consistently. "It does not need to be complicated, no matter what 'fitfluencers' want you to believe," experts noted in the research .

Why Muscle Power Deserves More Attention Than Strength Alone

Beyond traditional strength training, researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of "power," which is the ability to generate force quickly. This matters for everyday activities like catching yourself before you fall, jumping over an obstacle, or pushing yourself up from a chair .

Power declines faster than strength as we age. After age 40, people typically lose about 1 to 2 percent of muscle mass each year, but muscle power can decline earlier and much more rapidly. The encouraging news is that power can be trained through specific exercises .

"As you get older your muscles shrink and that is inescapable, irrespective of how active you are. If you make sure that the neural element is maintained alongside the muscle, your ability to maintain physical function across your life is much better. Even if you inevitably lose muscle mass, there's good evidence that you can make better use of the muscle you have," explained Oly Perkin, a researcher at the University of Bath specializing in exercise to improve health at all stages of life.

Oly Perkin, Researcher at the University of Bath

How to Build Power Through Explosive Movement

Power training differs from traditional strength training. Instead of lifting heavy weights slowly, power training involves moving lighter weights or your own body weight as quickly as possible. This trains the nervous system to activate muscles more efficiently .

Effective power-building exercises include:

• Plyometric movements: Box jumps and other explosive movements that require rapid force generation
• Medicine ball exercises: Throwing and catching a medicine ball to build explosive power in the upper body and core
• Weighted jumps: Jumping while holding light weights to combine power with resistance
• Kettlebell swings: Dynamic movements that build power throughout the body
• Wall push-offs: For older or less mobile people, leaning diagonally with hands against a wall and pushing away at speed

For power training, you want to use weights at about a six-out-of-10 difficulty level, meaning the weight should feel manageable but still challenging .

The neural improvements from power training can appear quickly. "Within three or four weeks you can start to see improvements in key markers," Perkin noted, particularly for older adults who have experienced significant muscle loss .

Why This Matters for Women of All Ages

The findings have important implications for federal fitness guidelines, which have historically emphasized aerobic exercise. Many women reach a point in life when meeting those aerobic standards becomes impossible due to illness or injury. The new research suggests that even those women can potentially live longer by maintaining strength .

Younger women should also take note. While researchers caution against drawing too many conclusions about longevity in other life stages, women of all ages would benefit from incorporating weight training into their exercise routines. Building a lifelong practice of strength training now could pay significant dividends later .

As older adults become the fastest-growing demographic in the United States, a population that skews heavily female, helping this group make small, consistent changes to maintain muscle strength could represent a major public health achievement. The evidence is clear: women cannot simply rely on walking or aerobic exercise alone to age well. They need to think strategically about ensuring their muscles get regular workouts, too.