Strength Training and Heart Disease: New Consensus Statement from The American Heart Association
Just weeks ago, the American Heart Association published, Resistance Exercise Training in Individuals With and Without Cardiovascular Disease: 2023 Update: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. This paper serves as the current state of the science on the benefits of strength training in preventing heart disease as well as the benefits of strength training for those with heart disease.
The four most important takeaways from this paper include:
Resistance training is a safe and effective means for mitigating cardiovascular disease factors for people with and without cardiovascular disease. As I’ve said for almost two decades, the number one reason we should lift weights is to improve our cardiovascular health.
Resistance training is just as effective as aerobic exercise in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors (from my experience, very few people are aware of this). However, combining resistance training and aerobic training provides statistically more risk protection than resistance or aerobic training by themselves.
Very few adults engage in strength training. “Despite the well documented benefits, only 28% of US adults report participating in 2 days per week of resistance training as recommended.” What’s worse is that as we age, we are less likely to strength train. 34% of 24-34 year old’s report strength training twice per week, while only 19% of adults over 65 years report engaging in twice per week strength training. The irony is, strength training is far more effective and valuable for us the older we get.
We don’t need very much of it. 30 to 60 minutes of strength training per week is associated with the maximum risk reduction benefit for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. More is NOT better. The authors conclude, “RT programs need not be time-consuming to be efficacious, requiring only 30 to 60 minutes per week. In general, a single set of 8 to 12 repetitions to volitional fatigue… for 8 to 10 different exercises involving major muscle groups, performed twice per week are highly effective.” This sounds familiar.
