This is literally the opposite of a controversial opinion. It's just the magic solution in a different shape.

Most things in life aren't some sort of instant solution. If you run you won't live to be a hundred. If you smoke you won't get lung cancer. What these actions do is shift your probability distribution in certain ways. Running frequently improves your overall life-expectancy, smoking increases your risk of lung cancer¹. You can do everything right and still have trouble. You can avoid every intervention and still have things work out.

So, if you're outcomes-oriented you modify your environment and behaviour to match the outcomes you want based on what you know to be capable. Getting vertical mice, split keyboards, expensive chairs are all interventions that shift your distribution to better outcomes. Lifting well and frequently, having better posture, taking breaks to move are also interventions that shift your distribution to better outcomes. Each intervention moves you to a better state of being.

Some interventions require you to apply techniques of willpower and motivation. Others require you to place yourself in an environment where those things aren't tested. Yet others are just tools. I think I would go out on a limb to say that most people younger than their early 30s who aim to spend themselves into good health are making moves that are rational.

Credentials here at bottom to prove I'm not some fat guy trying to justify not working out. My lift PRs indicate I'm not a novice (though not particularly exceptional). My weight at PRs (unless otherwise stated) was 165 lbs (75 kg). My height is 6' (184 cm).

Deadlift: 375 lbs at 180 lbs body weight, 3x315 lbs at 165 lbs

Squat: 275 lbs

Front Squat: 225 lbs

Clean and Jerk: 135 lbs

5k time: 23:53 (within 3 mos of the PRs)

¹ A quick test for your intuition for these events is to imagine in your head what you think the incidence of lung cancer in heavy lifetime smokers is and then look it up. 95%? 75%? 50%? 25%? 12%? 5%?

I know lifting weight is a big thing in the US, but not so much in my part of the world. Sometimes my impression is that many guys primarily want big muscles and conveniently convince themselves it is the way to go to be in good health. Not saying it's not but because it looks unnatural and isn't functional (I mean, have homo sapiens ever needed that kind of muscles?), I'm just wondering if it's really that healthy.

Are there any proven benefits to lifting heavy weight (compared to let say having a regular physical activity such as swimming, hiking, cycling, bodyweight exercises?)

The problem with asking a question like that is that you're going to get links to individual papers, but that's not a reasonable way to study science. You need the aggregate.

So, if you're wondering about whether lifting is good for your health, you should first identify what outcomes you're aiming for and then look for yourself what interventions increase the likelihood of those outcomes. I cannot provide specifically the information you desire in an economical way¹.

But it's unfair to just leave you with nothing, so here's a starting point in your research (apart from the Wikipedia article on Weight Training²): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2453303/

¹ For instance, maybe you don't care to be able to run some arbitrary distance. Maybe it isn't important to you to be able to cliff dive. Maybe it isn't important to you to live to 80. Maybe you consider being muscular to be of negative utility on its own. The state space is too large for me to capture here.

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight_training#Health_benefit...

If you want to keep your bones strong, there's no better exercise.

https://time.com/4803697/bodybuilding-strength-training/

It also increases your baseline strength, which is in turn one of the strongest correlates to maintaining health at any age.

Yes, there are many. It's quite easy to find the answer to that question.

We're not talking about crazy hypertrophy type lifting - bench 135, squat 185, deadlift 225 and you will not have rsi problems.

I do wonder if all these easily found studies have accounted for survivorship bias. I.e. those who can achieve those goals are those most likely to not develop RSI.

Ironically my RSI began within a few months of starting weight training.

I need to lift weight so I don't hurt myself carrying 65lb ladders down trails and in high wind for my job.

Is that ok with you?

By magic solution I mean the solution where if you just buy a thing all your problems will be solved!

If exercise and hard work were that easy everyone would just do it and we would have far fewer problems.

This is my experience.

I had lower back pain while sitting at a desk when I was younger.

Once I started lifting weights, and specifically doing heavy deadlifts, I've never had back pain again.

Interestingly, a lot of people are afraid deadlifts will cause back pain, but in my case at least, it cured back pain.

General fitness and strength training is just about the closest thing we have to a miracle cure for a wide array of common issues.

Yup. Too bad it doesn't come in pill form.

Not sure where that spine fragility myth came from.

I used to have back and wrist pain. Now I do mild exercise like a brisk daily walk and 100 burpees. Basically the bare minimum to check off my exercise box. I read Sarnos book and took to heart the idea that a lot of aches and pains are not injuries but are in your head.

Now I have no aches and pains ever.

Deadlifting incorrectly will most likely fuck your back. :)

I have been most happy (backwise) while running and doing a light version of cross fit (where correct lifting was a part of) couple of times every day.

But there are also us who are simply outside the size range any chair is designed for (I've generally been at 90-95kg at 195cm before hurting my back and limiting sports). Unfortunately, but expensive chairs are then usually the only way to go if you want to get a comparable experience to what "average size" humans get with "any chair". I can easily imagine short people having similar problems on the other end of the scale (hurting thighs because their feet can't reach the ground), or simply disproportionate people too.

There is no amount of exercise that will let any human hold a squat position for 8 hours day-in, day-out.

As OP indicates, "universal" design is the problem.

Vice versa no exercise can compensate a horrible chair.