All blog posts

Strength training to improve your heart health

Reading Time   
A- A+

Strength training to improve your heart health

Cardio versus strength training when improving heart health

When it comes to better heart health, strength training isn’t usually front of mind.

Instead, the conversation usually centres on walking, running, or cycling.

These are all important - but they’re only part of the picture. 

Because strength training is now recognised as an evidence-based tool for improving cardiovascular health.

The most recent American Heart Association (AHA) scientific statement makes it clear how strength training can improve:

  • Blood pressure
  • Cholesterol levels
  • Body composition
  • Blood glucose control
  • Overall cardiovascular disease risk

And the research shows these effects often aren’t small, either.

The AHA statement highlights studies showing:

  • Blood pressure reductions of ~4-6 mmHg in some groups
  • Improvements in HbA1c of ~0.3% in those with type 2 diabetes
  • Increases in lean body mass and reductions in body fat levels

The good news is the biggest reductions in cardiovascular risk were seen with just 30-60 minutes of strength training per week.

That means improving your heart health doesn’t have to mean spending hours in the gym.

It’s about applying the right stimulus consistently over time.

Does strength training help heart health?

We don’t often think of strength training as benefiting the heart.

But that may be because we tend to have a narrow view of heart health.

We often picture the heart in isolation - but actually, our cardiovascular health is shaped by a much wider system.

It’s impacted by things like:

How much muscle mass you have

How well your body regulates blood sugar

How much excess body fat you’re carrying

How your blood vessels respond and adapt

This is where strength training plays a unique role.

While it may not stimulate the heart in the way traditional aerobic exercise does, it improves many of the underlying factors that dictate how your cardiovascular system functions.

Over time, this can mean better metabolic control, improved vascular function, and more favourable body composition.

All of which contribute to lower overall cardiovascular risk.

So rather than thinking of strength training as separate from heart health, it’s more accurate to see it as working through a different pathway.

This is why every Kieser member follows a personalised strength program, designed and regularly reviewed by a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist. And programs are designed to improve more than just strength.

When done properly, strength training supports more than strength alone.

It also has an important role to play in heart health.

References:

Ashton RE et al. (2020). Effects of short-term, medium-term and long-term resistance exercise training on cardiometabolic health outcomes in adults: Systematic review with meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(6), 341-348.

Paluch AE et al. (2024). Resistance exercise training in individuals with and without cardiovascular disease: 2023 update: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 149(3), e217–e231. 

Related Posts