Exercising just two hours a week reduces the risk of heart disease, so what’s the story?
Many people struggle to maintain the weekly amount of exercise recommended by doctors, but scientific studies have concluded that doing even a small amount of this exercise can have a positive impact on a person’s life.
Exercising is undoubtedly one of the activities that is beneficial for the heart and regular exercise helps to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and also reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke. However, sometimes it can be difficult to find the time and motivation to exercise, and the question is: what is the minimum amount of exercise that can be done while still reaping the benefits? The answer to this question depends on how physically fit you are to begin with.
It is well known that the less physically fit you are, the more benefits you can get from the least amount of exercise.
So, if you are someone who doesn’t exercise at all, you only need a small amount of exercise to reduce your risk of heart disease, and cycling or brisk walking for an hour or two a week is all you need to reduce your risk of death from heart disease by 20 percent.
Why do people always wait for the first month of the year to improve their fitness?
However, as you become more fit and exercise more, the cardiovascular health benefits diminish and disappear completely, sometimes referred to as the “J” curve.
In addition, a person who does not exercise at all until they reach the point of exercising a few hours a week sees the greatest reduction in their risk of developing cardiovascular disease during that period. By increasing the amount of exercise they do to four hours a week, they see an additional reduction that protects them from injury risk, although it is about 10 percent less.
It appears that cardiovascular health benefits reach their maximum after four to six hours of exercise per week, and exceeding this amount becomes ineffective in achieving additional benefits for everyone.
However, a scientific study, which focused on training people who didn’t exercise at all and encouraged them to do an activity to build their endurance to the end, such as a marathon, showed that once participants reached the range of seven to nine hours of training per week, they saw a change in their heart health.
Training to this extent appears to help achieve the same results in reducing the risk of heart disease as training four to six hours per week, and participants saw an increase in heart muscle mass as well as an enlargement of the heart chambers.
The heart, like any other muscle, grows if it is given enough training, and scientists first noticed these changes about three months after starting exercise. Although the extra hours of exercise do not provide much benefit in terms of reducing the risk of heart disease, these changes in the heart’s structure mean improved physical fitness, which can help you run faster during a marathon.
Are the fitness programs spread on TikTok worth trying?
In the past, it was believed that such changes could only be achieved by professional exercisers, but this study is proof that if there is willingness and determination, a person will not only achieve benefits that affect cardiovascular health, but can also benefit the athletic heart.
In the past, it was believed that such changes could only be achieved by professional exercisers, but this study is proof that if there is willingness and determination, a person will not only achieve benefits that affect cardiovascular health, but can also benefit the athletic heart.
“Intensive training”
The idea of working out four hours a week without exercising can be daunting for some people, especially if you don’t have a lot of free time, and that’s where pacing your workouts comes in. If you want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to reducing your risk of heart disease, you need to train hard, and high-intensity interval training is an effective way to get the most out of your workout. It consists of 20 minutes of exercise, with short periods of intense exercise lasting 30 to 60 seconds, followed by short rest periods.
Although these exercises are short in duration, their effectiveness means that after several weeks of intense exercise, you are likely to see many benefits, including lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. However, most studies of intense exercise have been too small to measure whether there is an effect on overall cardiovascular disease risk.
What exercises are effective in lowering blood pressure?
A word of caution is necessary if you suffer from heart disease, as there are many medical conditions, such as cardiomyopathy (a hereditary disease), coronary artery disease, and myocarditis (usually caused by a viral infection), in which doctors advise against exercising. Rather, strenuous exercises, people who suffer from these conditions should stick to low- or moderate-intensity exercises, as it will still be beneficial for heart health, and will not cause any harm to the person.
But if finding the right time to exercise during the week represents a challenge for you, and you can only exercise on the weekends, rest assured that it is still a beneficial thing, as a study that included more than 37 thousand people concluded that people who exercised. Those who did physical activity only one of the two days a week had the same reduced risk of cardiovascular disease as those who were active throughout the week.
Based on the above, the message is simple for a person who doesn’t exercise at all and wants to improve their cardiovascular health, namely that a small amount of any type of exercise can make a big difference in your life.