New Strength Training Guidelines From ACSM

Earlier this month the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) revised its strength training guidelines for the first time since 2009. Needless to say there are plenty of changes after 17 years.

Especially since strength training is still treated like a recipe by many healthcare professionals. Sets, reps, rest periods, percentage of 1RM (rep max).

This new stand came from a review of 137 systematic reviews and data from more than 30,000 participants making it the most comprehensive evidenced based review on strength (or resistance) training prescription.

Strength training definitely works. It improves strength, power, hypertrophy, muscular endurance, walking speed, balance and daily tasks.

Also an update that many forms of strength training can be effective. Not just lifting weights in a gym, but also elastic bands, circuit training, home based and speed based training.

To improve strength, the evidence suggests that one needs to strength train at least 2 times a week using heavier loads. Exercise through a meaningful range of motion with 2-3 sets doing the key lifts (exercise) at the start of the session.

For hypertrophy, what matters most is doing enough work. High volume weekly, especially more than 10 sets per muscle group each week. Eccentric overload would be most effective to enhance growth.

If you are training for power, moderate loads of 20 to 70 percent of 1RM max moved fast with low to moderate volume are suggested. Olympic style lifting and power focused training seems to be most effective.

Just as interesting to note is what did not consistently matter. Time of muscle under tension, training to failure, equipment type, set structure, periodization and blood flow restriction did not consistently show improvement across the studies reviewed.

Surprised? The best strength training program is definitely not the most complex or complicated one. It is one that you can do consistently and progress reasonably and sensibly over time. And to be able to do it long term.

No need to obsess over set structure, exercise selection, home gym or public. There is no perfect strength training program, the results come from what you can do regularly over time and not what looks best on paper. Adherence is what helps you progress.

Reference

Currier BS, D'Souza AC, Singh MAF et al (2026). American College Of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance Training Prescription For Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, And Physical Performance In Healthy Adults: An Overview Of Reviews. Med Sci Sports Ex. 58(4): 851-872. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003897.

You can read the whole article here.

Strength Training Just As Important (If Not More) Than Aerobic Exercises

Lifting before running

After our two beautiful boys came along, my wife used to just run as there was not much time for any other exercise. She found big benefits from minimal running. It improved her mood and energy levels while also lowering her risk of heart disease and stroke.

After a few years of just running, she felt that her fitness level was stagnating and that she was losing strength. So earlier this year, (along with two friends), my wife has been doing twice weekly strength training sessions at the Holland Village F45  gym.

A recent study found strength training just as important (if not more than aerobic training) and can add years to your life. This is the largest study so far (over 80,000 adults) to compare mortality outcomes of different types of exercise people did.

Researchers found that strength training (both gym machines and body weight) decreased the risk of early death (23 percent) and cancer-related death (31 percent).

Earlier I wrote about how weight training can also help solve Singapore's diabetes problem as highlighted by our prime minister during the 2017 National Day Rally. This study lends more weight to my suggestions to help Singaporeans get healthier.

Moreover, the World Health Organization's (WHO) physical activity guidelines suggest 150 minutes of physical activities and two days of strength training every week.

Seems like my wife's twice weekly strength training sessions at the Holland Village F45 is spot on with WHO's guidelines.

For those intimidated by gyms, (be it costs or images of heavy weights), the researchers suggested that body weight exercises like sit-ups, push-ups, lunges and triceps dips done in your own home or local park can be just as beneficial.


Reference

Stamatakis E, Lee I, Bennie J et al (2017). Does Strength Promoting Exercise Confer Unique Health Benefits? A Pooled Analysis Of Eleven Population Cohorts With All-cause, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Mortality Endpoints. Am J Epidemiology. kwx345. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx345.

Can You Lift And Run?

Picture from The Pit, Singapore

I often get this question from my patients. They are often keen to look for an edge over their friends to improve their running performance. Most of them are not sure how to schedule or juggle their track sessions, gym / strength training etc.

I normally share my own experience with my patients having spent consistent time in the gym thrice weekly year round when I was still training seriously for triathlons.

Recently I also saw a paper just published on the acute effects of strength training done by a group of Australian researchers.

The runners in this study did 3 different strength training sessions on 3 occasions. One was a high intensity session for the whole body, the second was high intensity for the legs only while the final session was low intensity for the whole body. 6 hours after each strength session, they did a treadmill test of running 10 minutes at easy pace (70% ventilatory threshold), 10 mins at 90% threshold pace (or similar to your half marathon race pace) and finally running as long as possible at 110% threshold pace.

Both high intensity strength sessions significantly lessened the run time to exhaustion (5 mins prior to starting strength training compared with 4 mins after), suggesting that a hard weights/ strength training done 6 hours before will affect your fast running performance. The researchers suggested that runners should not run hard if they had done a strength session earlier in the day as they needed a longer time to recuperate. In fact they found that the ability to run at maximal effort was still impaired 24 hours after doing weights/ strength training for the legs.

Good news for runners is that running at lower intensities were unaffected by the strength training workouts. So you can do weights and run 6 hours later as long as the run is easy to moderate. The researchers suggested running first in the morning before a strength session later in the day after work for optimal recovery.

My take before I saw this paper? Well, when I used to race triathlons, I like to strength train first then run (or swim or bike for that matter) since in a triathlon I'm always fatigued by the run having swam and biked hard before. Doing weights first followed by running would mimic some of the fatigue I feel after swimming and biking in a triathlon race.

Well, that's just me although research seems to suggest otherwise now (although this research paper was done on runners not triathletes).

Now this is strength training. Picture from The Pit, Singapore