When it comes to mortality rates, being weak vs being strong is more impactful than smoking or not.
If we were to stack up every possible known risk factor—smoking, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, end-stage kidney disease, whatever—and we were to talk about how much of a hazard ratio these bring to you in terms of all-cause mortality, they’re quite big.
You know they are quite big, increase in mortality:
- hypertension is about a 20% increase,
- type 2 diabetes is about a 30% increase.
- smoking is a 50% increase.
Being weak relative to being strong is about 250%, and having a very low V̇O₂ max in the bottom 25% of the population versus being in the top 2.5% of the population is about 400%.
So, when you line everything up, the two things that stand out the most are incredible cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by V̇O₂ max, and strength. video/Peter-Attia
GPT validation of above
Current research supports Dr. Peter Attia’s assertion that low muscle strength and poor cardiorespiratory fitness (as measured by V̇O₂ max) are significant predictors of increased mortality risk, potentially surpassing traditional risk factors like smoking. - GPT-4o/2025-Mar
Related Studies
VO2
VO2-max
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