Are you growing tired of using your exercise bike or treadmill? According to a new study, occasionally picking up a few dumbbells rather than putting on your running shoes won’t be bad for your heart. Cardio Exercise
Researchers discovered that combining aerobic and resistance exercises within the recommended daily physical activity threshold lowers the risk of heart disease just as much as aerobic-only exercise. Lead researcher Duck-chul Lee, an Iowa State University professor of kinesiology, said, “Our study shows you can replace half of your aerobic workout with strength training to get the same cardiovascular benefits if you’re bored with aerobic exercise and want variety or you have joint pain that makes running long distances difficult.”
“The combined workout also offers some other unique health benefits, like improving your muscles,” Lee added in a university news release. Heart disease is the United States’ top killer, accounting for approximately one in three deaths, researchers said in background notes. Many studies have shown that aerobic exercise benefits the heart, especially for those with excess weight, but few have compared those results to resistance exercise, the researchers said.
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Cardio Exercise
For the study, the team tracked more than 400 people ages 35 to 70 for a year. All were overweight or obese, and all had high blood pressure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: resistance exercise only, aerobic exercise only, aerobic and resistance combined or no exercise at all. Resistance exercises can include weight machines, free weights, elastic resistance bands or even your own body weight, researchers said in background notes.
Cardio Exercise
Each participant in one of the exercise groups received a tailored workout routine based on their individual fitness levels and health problems. They worked out under supervision for one hour, three times a week for one year. By the end of the year-long trial, all exercise groups had lost a significant percentage of body fat compared to the no-exercise group. Every 1% reduction in body fat is associated with a 3% lower risk of high blood pressure, a 4% lower risk of elevated cholesterol, and an 8% lower risk of metabolic syndrome, the researchers noted.
Cardio Exercise
They also measured four heart disease risk factors at the start, middle and end of the clinical trial: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and body fat. The aerobic and combined workout groups both wound up with a lower score on those heart disease risk factors than the group that didn’t exercise, the results show. Resistance exercise on its own did not provide the same heart health benefits, the researchers noted. The study also showed one clear benefit of combining aerobic and strength training: the combination group improved in both aerobic fitness and muscular strength, whereas the aerobic-only and resistance-only groups improved only in their area of focus.
Cardio Exercise
Lee noted that people can blend aerobic and resistance exercise without taking a bigger bite out of their day. “One of the most common reasons why people don’t exercise is because they have limited time,” Lee said. “The combined exercise with both cardio and strength training we’re suggesting is not more time-consuming.”
Cardio Exercise
Lee next plans to focus on the “right dose” of resistance exercise for people who are overweight or obese through another clinical trial. Physical activity guidelines call for at least 150 minutes each week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and two sessions of resistance training. “But these guidelines don’t specify how long those strength training sessions should be to get the health benefits,” Lee noted.
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