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A recent study reveals that including strength training into your cardio program can lower your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
• A recent study found that combining aerobic and resistance training reduced waist circumference, body fat percentage, and blood pressure, all of which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
•Additionally, resistance exercise can improve aerobic capacity, functional ability, and quality of life.
• Cardio alone does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease as much as lifting weights does.
Strength or muscular training, such as our Sports Pilates has been shown to lower visceral fat and enhance sleep, happiness, weight maintenance, but new research indicates that adding this type of muscular training to your regular exercise program can also benefit your heart health.
Researchers found that a combination of muscular training and aerobic exercise enhanced cardiovascular health and reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease in a study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Over the course of eight weeks, participants who combined low- to moderate-intensity resistance training with high-intensity interval training on a treadmill saw improvements in their quality of life scores, blood pressure, waist circumference, body fat percentage, and body mass index compared to those who did not perform the resistance training.
Pallav Deka, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction at Michigan State University and the study’s principal investigator, believes that these beneficial improvements have the potential to start a vicious cycle.
Deka stated that motivation frequently results from successfully completing a task and building confidence over time. “When you see results from what you’re doing, it’s even better. I believe a major incentive to keep working out is that members of the experimental group experienced weight loss, a reduction in waist circumference, and an improvement in lean body mass.
While resistance training increases strength and reduces body fat, aerobic exercise promotes heart health and overall fitness, easing the strain on the heart. It’s best to incorporate both because of this. According to licensed exercise physiologist and health sciences researcher Mike Kantor, “this method of training allows for improved outcomes for people coping with and preventing cardiovascular disease and other health concerns.”
Although aerobic exercise has clear advantages for cardiovascular health, Deka and Kantor both agreed that the main reason why this combination of training is better than aerobic exercise alone is that strength/muscular training enables the heart to work less hard during regular activities like walking, climbing a flight of stairs, or cleaning.
“Adding muscular training with cardio is the best choice if you want more bang for your buck,” Kantor advised.
Researchers in Deka’s study looked at a population that was already suffering from heart disease rather than comparing it to a cardio-only group. However, more extensive investigations that were published in Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise provide broad support for these findings. In a research involving nearly 40,000 women, those who exercised for strength saw a 17 percent reduction in heart disease risk compared to those who just engaged in aerobic exercise. A cardiovascular event’s risk was shown to be decreased by 40 to 70 percent by even one strength training session each week lasting less than an hour, according to another study.
Doing Specific Strength or Pilates exercises may be just as crucial to improving heart health as keeping track of your cardio workouts. You can have greater energy for all of your activities by doing strength training. According to Deka, “choosing a healthy lifestyle will play a huge role as far as minimizing the risk for cardiovascular illnesses and experiencing gains in quality of life, which includes exercise, both aerobic and resistance training.”
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