The Balanced Approach to Heart Health

Right now, around 620 million people around the world are living with heart and circulatory diseases. By the end of the year, another 60 million more will likely be diagnosed. In recent years, these conditions have caused around 20 million deaths annually, which is nearly one-third of all deaths worldwide. While these numbers are concerning, there are many ways to reduce the risks.

We know that maintaining a healthy diet, cutting down on salty or fatty foods, keeping a healthy weight, not smoking, and managing stress are all effective ways to protect your heart. Daily physical activity is also key, but the debate has been about which type of exercise is the best for heart health.

What Type of Exercise is Best for Your Heart?

For a long time, cardio has been considered the best type of workout for heart health. The word "cardio" comes from "cardiovascular," which means it's directly related to the heart and blood vessels. Cardio workouts like running, cycling, and aerobic exercises help lower blood pressure and improve how well the heart and lungs work. There’s a lot of evidence linking these types of activities to a healthier heart.

However, more recently, some scientists have suggested that strength training could be just as good, or even better, for heart health. A study conducted by U.S. researchers followed thousands of people for 11 years. They found that people who did resistance training—like lifting weights—had a healthier heart, and their risk of heart attack or stroke was about 50% lower than those who didn’t lift weights. The surprising part was that people only needed to lift weights twice a week, for a total of just one hour, to see the benefits. And even if they didn’t do much cardio, they still reduced their heart disease risk.

The New Findings

Now, new research from Iowa State University has given us a clearer answer. The study looked at 406 people over 12 months. Participants were split into four groups: no exercise, cardio only, strength training only, or a combination of cardio and strength training. The three groups that exercised worked out for one hour, three times a week, and all their sessions were supervised. The researchers measured key factors for heart disease, like blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and body fat.

After a year, all of the people who exercised showed significant reductions in body fat compared to those who didn’t. This is important because even a 1% reduction in body fat can lower your risk of high blood pressure by 3%, high cholesterol by 4%, and metabolic syndrome by 8%, all of which are major risk factors for heart disease.

The study found that the best results came from splitting exercise time between cardio and strength training. Doing both types of workouts reduced heart disease risk just as much as cardio alone. On the other hand, doing only strength training didn’t have the same benefits for heart health.

What’s the Takeaway?

The findings support what we’ve been promoting at Collective Fitness, especially through our partnership with Les Mills: a 50:50 balance of cardio and strength training is the winning formula for heart health. This balance ensures you get the heart-boosting benefits of cardio and the muscle-building benefits of strength training, which together help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Bryce Hastings, Head of Research at Les Mills, highlights that the study is important because it shows that training with both cardio and strength exercises for the same amount of time leads to the best heart health outcomes. Even if you only have an hour a week, you can still see significant cardiovascular benefits. He also notes that while mixed circuit workouts (which switch between cardio and resistance exercises) are becoming popular, we still need to understand their full impact on heart health.

In Short:

A balanced mix of cardio and strength training is key to protecting your heart. By dedicating equal time to both types of workouts, you can reduce your risk of heart disease.

Top Tip: When you work out, start with the strength exercises. This ensures your stabilising muscles aren’t too tired when it comes to the cardio part.