Weight lifting can lower heart attack risk

A lot of medical research is now telling us that we don’t really need to spend a lot of time exercising for better health. Even the World Health Organization has weighed in, saying that just two and a half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week can do the trick.

The latest good news is that lifting weights for less than an hour a week could reduce our risk for a heart attack or stroke by 40 to 70 percent.

The other new advice is that you don’t really need to spend more time than that, because the researchers found that any more time on the weights didn’t produce any additional benefits. This is according to a new study conducted at Iowa State University and published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

The results, some of the first to look at the relationship between resistance exercise and cardiovascular disease, show that the benefits of strength training are independent of aerobic activities, like running or walking. They also show that you don’t have to meet the recommended guidelines for aerobic physical activity to lower your risk — weight training alone is enough. 

The researchers analysed data from nearly 13,000 adults in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study and found that resistance exercise lowered the risk of three major health events: cardiovascular events that didn’t result in death, all cardiovascular events including death, and any type of death.

“The results are encouraging, but will people make weightlifting part of their lifestyle? Will they do it and stick with it? That’s the million-dollar question,” said Dr Duck-chul Lee, associate professor of kinesiology and lead author of the study, in ScienceDaily.

Unlike aerobic activity, resistance exercise is not as easy to incorporate into our daily routines. So the study suggested that people join a gym as it offered more options and people with gym memberships tended to exercise more. While the study focused on free weights and weight machines, people can also benefit from other resistance exercises or any muscle-strengthening activity.

“Lifting any weight that increases resistance on your muscles is the key,” Dr Lee said. “My muscle doesn't know the difference if I'm digging in the yard, carrying heavy shopping bags, or lifting a dumbbell.”

Much of the research on strength training has focused on bone health and physical function in older adults. But weight lifting is just as good for our hearts, while also bringing other benefits. For example, in related studies, researchers found resistance exercise also lowered the risk for both diabetes and high cholesterol.

The main finding in the current study was that less than an hour of weekly resistance exercise was associated with a 29 percent lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. In particular, the risk of getting high cholesterol was reduced by 32 percent.

According to Dr Lee, muscle is the power plant that burns calories in our bodies. So building muscle not only helps move our joints and bones, but also brings about numerous metabolic benefits, which until now had not been well appreciated.