Weightlifting can help your heart. Here’s how to maximise the benefits

Since the 1950s, scientists and doctors have believed that aerobic activity is good for your heart.

For decades physicians have advised their patients that exercise like jogging, walking, cycling and swimming will improve their cardiovascular health. In contrast, deadlifts, squats and presses were thought only to be useful for building muscle, strengthening bones and improving balance.

This was all true – up to a point. While aerobic exercise does improve cardiovascular health, it turns out that lifting weights benefits the heart more than was previously understood, even without aerobic exercise.

A recent study of more than 117,000 women followed for just over 14 years found that women aged 48 to 66 who did two or more hours of resistance training a week had a 20 per cent lower risk of major cardiovascular disease.

The women in that age group also had a 44 per cent lower risk of myocardial infarction, when compared with women who did no strength training.

For every additional hour of strength training the women did, the study found, there was a 5 per cent reduction in cardiovascular disease, says Dr Meagan Wasfy, a sports cardiologist at Mass General Brigham Heart & Vascular Institute in the US.

Similar results have been found in other studies that have included men and women.

“Individuals, as they age, should prioritise strength training and make sure they walk,” says Mark Haykowsky, a cardiovascular exercise physiologist and professor at the University of Alberta. “But if I had to choose one exercise if you’re 60 or older,” he says, “Number one is strength training,” because of the benefits to the bones, muscles and heart.

Here’s how strength training can help your heart and how to get the most cardiovascular benefits from weightlifting, according to experts.

Our muscles do more than just stabilise the body and help us lift heavy objects.

“Muscle is not just for strength, it’s actually metabolically active tissue,” says Amanda Paluch, a physical activity researcher and associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

When we exercise our muscles, Paluch says, we stimulate that tissue, which improves the functioning of blood vessels, helping them relax and dilate more efficiently.

“When that happens, the heart has to work less hard,” Paluch says, which then lowers blood pressure.

Resistance training, contrary to what many experts once believed, is at least as good as aerobic training at lowering blood pressure, Wasfy says. Building muscle also helps heart health by shifting the body’s composition, not only reducing the amount of fat but potentially decreasing the fat inside muscles, she adds.