{"id":3652,"date":"2025-04-06T11:20:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T11:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/3652\/"},"modified":"2025-04-06T11:20:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T11:20:27","slug":"science-says-people-with-bigger-biceps-live-longer-so-here-are-the-workouts-you-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/3652\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Says People With Bigger Biceps Live Longer \u2013 So Here Are the Workouts You Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you needed yet another reason to train arms<\/a>, here it is: bigger biceps<\/a> might help you live longer. And it\u2019s not just us saying it, it\u2019s science.<\/p>\n

A major new study has found that people with more muscle mass in their upper arms \u2013 yes, specifically arm size \u2013 were significantly less likely to die early. The research<\/a>, published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, pooled data from nearly 900,000 people and found that low muscle mass (measured by upper arm circumference, aka the guns), was consistently linked to a higher risk of death from a wide range of causes.<\/p>\n

In fact, individuals with muscle wasting \u2013 the clinical term for declining muscle mass \u2013 had a 36% higher risk of dying from any cause. That included heart disease, cancer, and respiratory illness. And while the study looked at total muscle mass in various forms, arm circumference stood out as one of the most accessible, reliable indicators of overall muscle health.<\/p>\n

Translation: your biceps might be telling you more about your longevity than you thought.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

Why? Because muscle isn\u2019t just for lifting weights or filling out sleeves. Muscle mass is deeply tied to metabolic health, immune function, and even how well your body recovers from illness. And when your muscle starts to fade \u2013 through age, inactivity, or illness \u2013 so does your resilience.<\/p>\n

Arm size, it turns out, is a surprisingly good snapshot of your overall muscle reserves. It\u2019s easy to measure, doesn\u2019t require expensive equipment, and correlates with strength and function. It\u2019s been used in hospitals assessments for years. Now, this new meta-analysis confirms it\u2019s also a strong predictor of life expectancy.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

So, while the obvious advice is still to focus holistically on your health<\/a>, keeping your heart in good shape and being mindful or your diet<\/a> (and yes, still do that), don\u2019t neglect the limbs that keep you moving. Training for bigger arms \u2013 and let\u2019s be serious for a minute, we\u2019re still talking about training your entire body<\/a> with a mixture of compound lifts to build a balanced physique \u2013 isn\u2019t just about looking better. It could be about living longer.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately a gargantuan set of pipes alone won\u2019t make you immortal. But in a world where the science is abundant that muscle equals survival<\/a>, keeping your mass \u2013 including those biceps \u2013 might just be one of the smartest health investments you can make.<\/p>\n

Now go smash those curls. Doctor\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n

The Workouts You Need to Grow Those Guns\"Headshot<\/p>\n

With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men\u2019s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that\u2019s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for \u2018free pizza\u2019 and wait for him to appear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you needed yet another reason to train arms, here it is: bigger biceps might help you live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2083,2086,1331,105,1330,2085,2084,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-3652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-content-type-default","9":"tag-contentid-67b01427-6551-4769-9936-1b780662da03","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-locale-gb","13":"tag-says-science","14":"tag-shorttitle-people-with-big-biceps-live-longer","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114290755057360977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}