Intensifying your workouts can boost heart health, new study reveals

Jet, Nov 18, 2002

Slow and steady exercise may be good for your overall health, but moving faster could be better for your heart, suggests a new study of more than 40,000 men.

Although previous studies have shown that walking and other lower intensity activities, when done consistently, can be just as effective for long-term good health as high-intensity workouts, the new study by Harvard University researchers found that men who exercised at a high intensity were 17 percent less likely to develop heart disease than those who did low-intensity exercise.

High intensity exercise includes running or jogging at 6 m.p.h. Low-intensity activities include walking at a pace of 2 m.p.h.

The study also found that men who engaged in weight training for 30 minutes or more weekly had a 23 percent lower risk of heart disease than men who did not weight train. Researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health said the heart benefits may result in part from reductions in blood pressure and body fat achieved through weight training.

Given the independent results from weight training, researchers theorized that adding weight training to a high-intensity exercise program would reap even greater benefits.

The study appears in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is based on medical records and questionnaires periodically given to 44,452 health professionals from 1986 to 1998. Participants were ages 40 to 70 at the outset.

Heart disease was ultimately diagnosed in 1,700 participants.

Men who ran for an hour or more weekly at 6 m.p.h. or more were 42 percent less likely, to develop heart disease than non-runners. There were no significant heart benefits found from low-intensity walking.

"The more exercise you do and the higher intensity seems to be better with regard to cardiovascular protection," said Dr. Gerald Fletcher, an American Heart Association (AHA) spokesman and cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL.

While the findings of the Harvard study correspond with AHA guidelines, which recommend aerobic exercise at least six days a week and weight training two or three times weekly, Fletcher said the results should not discourage people who want to start working out.

"A little is better than sitting in front of the television," he said.

Health experts have said that moderate-intensity activities like walking, gardening, dancing and home exercise, when performed at least 30 minutes daily, can lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart attack, heart disease, stroke and diabetes.