Strength training can be as effective for weight management as aerobic training and combining the two reduces a person's obesity risk by half, research has found.

The study of the exercise habits of 1.7 million adults by the University of Southern Queensland, published in the journal Obesity, found people who did aerobic training or weights alone reduced their obesity risk by about one third.

Strength training - using your body weight, hand weights or a machine - may be as effective for weight management as aerobic exercise, study finds. Credit:Getty

Those who did aerobic or just strength training in the new research experienced “pretty similar” benefits. “There was about 30-31 per cent reduced likelihood (of obesity),” said lead author, Dr Jason Bennie, a Senior Research Fellow at USQ's Physically Active Lifestyles Research Group.

“We showed, for obesity, the most favourable was doing both – there was a 50 per cent less likelihood of obesity from doing both.”