When it comes to reducing your risk of heart disease, look to resistance exercise. It’s easier than you think. “People may think they need to spend a lot of time lifting weights, but just two sets of bench presses that take less than five minutes could be effective,” says DC Lee, PhD, Associate Professor of Kinesiology at Iowa State University, Ames, who recently led a study into the subject.
Data analysis from the study showed that resistance exercises performed just one to three times a week was associated with lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease events. Before you go hit the gym whole hog, increasing frequency to four or more times a week or going for a longer duration did not significantly yield any more benefits. “In terms of frequency, we found one to three times per week provided significant cardiovascular benefits…we did not have data on intensity since it is not easy to measure accurately,” said Lee.
Lee also noted that body weight exercises like pushups, squats and lunges should be beneficial as well. “Muscle is the power plant to burn calories. Building muscle helps move your joints and bones, but also there are metabolic benefits… if you build muscle, even if you are not aerobically active, you burn more energy because you have more muscle. This helps prevent obesity and provides long term benefits on various outcomes…improved physical function, increased energy expenditure, and emotional factors such as relief form anxiety, depression or insomnia.”
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