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The #1 Activity to Support Your Heart Health, According to a Cardiologist
What This Study on Exercise Found
According to a new study published January 17, 2024, in theEuropean Heart Journal, a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training may help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with obesity or overweight and elevated blood pressure.
Researchers continually monitoredrisk factors of cardiovascular diseasein participants. These included blood pressure levels, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose and body fat percentage.
At the end of the year, researchers found that only two groups had a significant reduction in heart-related disease factors: the aerobic exercise and combination groups. While the aerobic exercise group proved most efficient at using oxygen in the muscles, the combination group significantly improved in both cardiovascular and muscular fitness. Nonetheless, the reduction in heart-related disease factors overall was equal for both groups.
According to the study, this research could be paramount in pinpointing the best heart-healthy balance between aerobic and resistance exercise. The researchers write, “These findings may help develop clinical and public health practices and recommendations for the [roughly] 2 billion adults with overweight or obesity worldwide who are at increased risk of [cardiovascular disease].”
It’s worth noting that more research on a larger, more diverse participant pool is needed to draw conclusions on the effects of aerobic and resistance exercises on long-term heart health.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to the heart, there’s no right or wrong way to increase movement. Any physical activity can be beneficial in improving your cardiovascular fitness and reducing risk factors for heart-related diseases. So, if you don’t like walking, running and cycling as much as you do lifting weights and performing repetitions, new research is starting to suggest that a mix of the two kinds of exercise is just as effective for improving heart health.
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