In the past, cardio workouts were considered the best way to improve your health heart and keep your cardiovascular system strong. Cardio workouts lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and for this reason, are essential to heart and cardiovascular health. Weightlifting was considered non-beneficial to people with heart attack and stroke concerns. In fact, many doctors discouraged their patients from weightlifting because it was feared to be too strenuous for their hearts.
But in recent years, medical and fitness professionals have begun to recognize the benefits weightlifting offers the heart and lungs, especially when combined with a good cardio routine. The American Heart Association has published studies evidencing how weightlifting can benefit the heart.
Benefits of weightlifting for heart health
The two main benefits of weightlifting for the heart are:
- It turns out there is actually an aerobic component to weightlifting exercises.
- Weightlifting contributes to an improvement in one’s condition and muscle mass, which results in a lower resting metabolism and lower blood pressure.
This means weightlifting could help to lower one’s chances of future heart attacks or cardiac issues. For example, when a weak heart, normally exerted just by ordinary stair climbing or strolling, is carefully strengthened through a proper weightlifting routine, that heart will be stronger and able to tolerate more exertion. The more lean muscle mass you have, the less hard your heart must work.
The pumping of the heart during weightlifting builds strength in the walls of the heart’s ventricles, which enables them to pump more efficiently. This lowers blood pressure, which is a major factor in many heart attacks and strokes.
Side effect benefits
If you’re overweight, as many heart patients are, there’s more good news: building lean muscle mass will lower your BMI. Lean muscle burns about 50 calories per pound, so the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn, which helps with your weight loss efforts. Not only does weightlifting help you reach a healthy weight, but it contributes long term to the difficult effort to maintain it.
Developing a workout
Talk to a doctor or fitness trainer to design a workout that’s safe for your heart and body and will give you the benefits you most need. Generally speaking, the American Heart Association recommends six thirty-minute aerobic sessions per week with three fifteen-minute weightlifting sessions, but that’s somewhat vague. In fifteen minutes, you can work a number of different muscle groups – which ones are best for you? And can you even handle this level of activity just now? If not, how will you build up to it? You need to talk to someone who understands your condition and can give you specific advice.
Filed in Strength Training
Updated: July 21, 2010
Copyright: May 30, 2010
