MANGAN: New book, “Muscle Up”, coming soon.

[A]erobic exercisers believe that their aerobic exercise is both necessary and sufficient for health, when it is neither. It is not necessary, because strength training has a substantial aerobic component, and it is not sufficient, because aerobic exercise has a poor record at fat loss and does nothing for or even accelerates sarcopenia, the loss of muscle with age. . . .

Strength training has a much better record at fat loss, particularly as it pertains to waist circumference, which is a much better measure of health risk than Body Mass Index (BMI). Even with a “normal” BMI, a larger waist circumference means higher risk of illness and mortality.

As for sarcopenia – muscle loss with age – it appears that strength training could all but abolish it. Even people in their 90s – even hip fracture patients – greatly benefit from resistance training, as I document in the book.