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Strength training statistics 2026: who lifts, how much, and why

By Stelvo Team · · 10 min read

Every number on this page is traced to the body that produced it — the CDC's National Health Interview Survey, Healthy People 2030, peer-reviewed meta-analyses and the fitness industry's own membership surveys — and was checked against the source on 15 September 2026. Each statistic appears once, with publisher, year and link.

Key takeaways

  • Only 24.2% of US adults met both the aerobic and the muscle-strengthening guideline in 2020; 31.0% met the muscle-strengthening guideline on its own (CDC/NCHS, 2022).
  • 57.8% of US adults reported no muscle-strengthening exercise at all in a 397,423-person BRFSS analysis — three in five (Bennie et al., 2018).
  • 17.3% of European adults strength train twice a week or more, from 0.7% in the lowest countries to 51.6% in the highest (Bennie et al., 2020).
  • Adults who do any resistance training have 15% lower all-cause mortality, 19% lower cardiovascular mortality and 14% lower cancer mortality than those who do none (Shailendra et al., 2022).
  • The benefit peaks at 30–60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity a week, with 10–17% lower risk of death, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes (Momma et al., 2022).
  • Muscle mass falls roughly 3–8% per decade after age 30, faster after 60 (Volpi et al., 2004).
  • Frail nursing-home residents aged around 90 increased their strength 174% in eight weeks of lifting (Fiatarone et al., 1990).
  • Resistance training cuts depressive symptoms with a moderate effect size of 0.66 across 33 trials — a number needed to treat of 4 (Gordon et al., 2018).
  • Every 5 kg of lower grip strength is linked to 16% higher all-cause mortality across 17 countries (Leong et al., 2015).
  • 32.1% of US gym members trained with dumbbells or free weights in 2024, and 22.6% worked with a personal trainer (HFA, 2025).
  • Women were 21% more likely than men to record a weight-training session on Strava in 2025 (Strava, 2025).
  • Only 16.5% of US high-school students met both the aerobic and the muscle-strengthening guideline in 2023, down from 20.0% in 2017 (Healthy People 2030).

How many adults strength train?

Just under a third. In 2020, 31.0% of US adults met the federal muscle-strengthening guideline (activities on two or more days a week), 46.9% met the aerobic guideline and only 24.2% met both, according to CDC/NCHS Data Brief 443, based on the National Health Interview Survey; 6.8% met only the muscle-strengthening guideline and 46.3% met neither. A larger Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System analysis of 397,423 adults found 30.2% met the twice-weekly recommendation and 57.8% reported no muscle-strengthening exercise at all (Bennie et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2018).

The federal target is modest and still unmet. Healthy People 2030 tracks the share of adults doing muscle-strengthening activity on two or more days a week in leisure time at 31.9% in 2020 and 32.9% in 2024, against a target of 36.6% (objective PA-04). The share meeting both guidelines was 25.2% in 2020 and 26.4% in 2024, against a target of 29.7% (objective PA-05).

Measure (US adults) Latest value Source
Met muscle-strengthening guideline (with or without aerobic) 31.0% (2020) NCHS Data Brief 443
Met both guidelines 24.2% (2020); 22.5% of adults 25+ (2022) NCHS; MMWR QuickStats
Met neither guideline 46.3% (2020) NCHS Data Brief 443
No muscle-strengthening exercise at all 57.8% (BRFSS 2015) Bennie et al., 2018
Muscle-strengthening ≥2 days/week, leisure time (age-adjusted) 32.9% (2024), target 36.6% Healthy People 2030 PA-04

Who strength trains — and who doesn't?

Men, the young, the educated and the better-off. Among adults meeting both guidelines in 2020, men (28.3%) outnumbered women (20.4%); among men the share fell from 41.3% at ages 18–34 to 15.3% at 65 and over, and among women from 28.7% to 10.8% (NCHS, 2022). Income tracks the same way: 32.4% of men and 25.9% of women at or above 200% of the federal poverty level met both guidelines, versus 16.2% and 9.9% of those below the poverty line.

Education is an even sharper divide. In 2022, 22.5% of adults aged 25 and over met both guidelines — 12.2% of those with a high-school education or less and 33.6% of those with a bachelor's degree or higher (MMWR QuickStats, June 2024).

In Europe, only 17.3% of adults across 28 countries reported sufficient muscle-strengthening exercise (two or more days a week) in the European Health Interview Survey, ranging from 0.7%–7.4% in Romania, Malta and Cyprus to 34.1%–51.6% in Iceland, Sweden and Denmark (Bennie et al., PLOS ONE, 2020). Older age, being female, lower income or education and being overweight all independently predicted not lifting.

Are teenagers strength training?

Fewer than before. The share of US students in grades 9–12 who were active for 60 minutes every day and did muscle-strengthening activity on three or more days a week fell from 20.0% in 2017 to 16.5% in 2023, against a Healthy People 2030 target of 24.1% — a trend the programme labels "getting worse" (objective PA-08).

Does strength training reduce the risk of dying?

Yes, in every large cohort analysis to date. A meta-analysis of 10 studies found that any amount of resistance training, compared with none, was associated with 15% lower all-cause mortality (RR 0.85), 19% lower cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.81) and 14% lower cancer mortality (RR 0.86); the maximum reduction of 27% appeared at around 60 minutes a week, and the benefit diminished at higher volumes (Shailendra et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2022).

A separate meta-analysis of 16 cohort studies found muscle-strengthening activities associated with a 10–17% lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, total cancer, diabetes and lung cancer, with J-shaped curves peaking at roughly 30–60 minutes a week for mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and an L-shaped curve for diabetes with a large risk reduction up to 60 minutes a week; combining muscle-strengthening with aerobic activity was associated with lower all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality than doing neither (Momma et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022).

Strength itself predicts survival. In the PURE study of 139,691 adults in 17 countries, each 5 kg reduction in grip strength was associated with a 16% higher risk of all-cause mortality and 17% higher cardiovascular mortality, and grip strength was a stronger predictor of death than systolic blood pressure (Leong et al., The Lancet, 2015).

How much muscle do you lose with age?

About 3–8% per decade after 30. The review by Volpi, Nazemi and Fujita (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 2004) states that muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 and that the decline accelerates after 60. Westcott's review puts the same figure for inactive adults and adds that ten weeks of resistance training can increase lean weight by 1.4 kg, raise resting metabolic rate by 7% and reduce fat weight by 1.8 kg (Westcott, Current Sports Medicine Reports, 2012).

Sarcopenia — clinically low muscle mass and strength — affects between 10% and 27% of people depending on the definition used, across 151 studies and 692,056 participants (Petermann-Rocha et al., Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 2022).

Is it ever too late to start lifting?

No. Ten frail, institutionalised volunteers aged 90 ± 1 who undertook eight weeks of high-intensity resistance training gained an average of 174% in strength, 9.0% in mid-thigh muscle area and 48% in tandem gait speed (Fiatarone et al., JAMA, 1990).

Bone responds too. In the LIFTMOR trial, 101 postmenopausal women with low bone mass who did eight months of twice-weekly, 30-minute supervised high-intensity resistance and impact training increased lumbar-spine bone density by 2.9% while a low-intensity home programme lost 1.2%, with only one adverse event (Watson et al., Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2018).

Does lifting help mental health?

Yes, with effects large enough to matter clinically. Across 33 randomised trials and 1,877 participants, resistance exercise training reduced depressive symptoms with a moderate mean effect of 0.66 and a number needed to treat of 4, regardless of how much strength participants gained (Gordon et al., JAMA Psychiatry, 2018). For anxiety, 16 trials with 922 participants gave an effect of 0.31 overall and 0.50 among healthy participants (Gordon et al., Sports Medicine, 2017). A 2024 network meta-analysis of 218 trials ranked strength training among the most effective exercise modes for depression (effect −0.49 versus active controls), behind walking or jogging (−0.62) and yoga (−0.55) (Noetel et al., BMJ, 2024).

How is strength training changing in gyms?

Free weights are gaining on machines. In 2024, 32.1% of US fitness members trained with dumbbells or free weights, while resistance-machine use fell to 26.6% from 31.4% in 2021; 22.6% of members worked with a personal trainer and 32.3% did small-group training, and the number of women using personal training reached 7.3 million, up 15.9% (HFA, 2025).

On Strava, which reports more than 180 million users, women were 21% more likely than men to record a weight-training session in 2025, Gen Z was twice as likely as Gen X to call weight training its primary sport, and 61% more Gen Z than Gen X said they lift for aesthetics (Strava Year in Sport, December 2025). Traditional strength training ranked #7 in the American College of Sports Medicine's survey of more than 2,000 fitness professionals for 2026 (ACSM, October 2025).

How much strength training do you need?

Two days a week, per the guidelines; 30–60 minutes a week, per the mortality data. The CDC recommends adults do muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days a week alongside 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity (CDC). The cohort evidence above shows the biggest gains at 30–60 minutes a week (Momma et al., 2022) and a peak around 60 minutes (Shailendra et al., 2022) — which is to say, the first hour of lifting a week does most of the work.

How to cite this page

Stelvo, "Strength training statistics 2026: who lifts, how much, and why", stelvo.app, updated September 2026 — https://stelvo.app/blog/strength-training-statistics. Credit individual figures to the original study or agency named beside them.

Sources

Method: figures were traced to the original study or agency and verified against the source on 15 September 2026. Cohort associations are not proof of cause; trial results are reported with their sample sizes so the strength of evidence is visible. This page is refreshed when new NHIS or Healthy People data is released.

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