• Posted February 23, 2026

Strength Linked To Longevity Among Senior Women

You don’t need to look buff or tough, but muscle strength can influence how long you’ll live, a new study says.

Older women with greater strength had a significantly lower risk of death during an eight-year follow-up, researchers recently reported in JAMA Network Open.

The study measured women’s grip strength and ability to rise from a seated to standing position — two tests commonly used to determine seniors’ strength levels.

Women had a 12% lower death rate for every 15 additional pounds of grip strength they exhibited during testing, researchers found.

Likewise, they had a 4% lower death rate for every 6 seconds faster they could complete five sit-to-stand chair raises, results showed.

“If you don’t have enough muscle strength to get up, it is going to be hard to do aerobic activities, such as walking, which is the most commonly reported recreational activity in U.S. adults ages 65 and older,” lead researcher Michael LaMonte said in a news release. He’s a research professor of epidemiology and environmental health with the University of Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions in New York state.

“Muscular strength, in many ways, enables one to move their body from one point to another, particularly when moving against gravity,” he said. “Healthy aging probably is best pursued through adequate amounts of both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activities. When we no longer can get out of the chair and move around, we are in trouble.”

For the new study, researchers tracked nearly 5,500 women between 63 and 99 years of age. The women underwent strength tests, and then were followed for an average of eight years.

Results showed that muscle matters, even after taking into account other measures of fitness.

In fact, women with higher muscle strength had lower risk of death even if they weren’t getting their recommended amount of weekly exercise, researchers found.

“Because women ages 80 and older are the fastest-growing U.S. age group, the importance of monitoring and maintaining muscular strength will have huge public health implications in the coming decades,” LaMonte said.

Importantly, women didn’t have to look like lean bodybuilders to gain benefit from their strength.

“We also showed that differences in body size did not explain the muscular strength relationship with death,” he said. “When we scaled the strength measures to body weight and even to lean body mass, there remained significantly lower mortality.”

The researchers stressed that seniors don’t necessarily need to hit the gym to build up their strength.

“Even using soup cans or books as a form of resistance provides stimulus to skeletal muscles and could be used by individuals for whom other options are not feasible,” LaMonte said.

However, the team urged seniors to consult with their doctor before starting any strength-training exercises. LaMonte said a physical therapist or exercise specialist can help seniors work out safely toward targeted strength goals.

More information

The National Institute on Aging has more on strength training for seniors.

SOURCE: University of Buffalo, news release, Feb. 17, 2026