THE ESSENTIAL
- Exercising regularly reduces blood pressure, cholesterol and cardiovascular risks. Sedentary people see benefits with just 1-2 hours of brisk walking or cycling per week.
- Beyond 4-6 hours per week, gains plateau, but longer workouts change the structure of the heart, improving performance and fitness.
- Even minimal effort, spread over the week or concentrated on the weekend, can transform your heart health.
Regular physical exercise is a major asset for heart health. It helps reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular accidents. But how much effort do you really have to put in to benefit from these effects? The answer varies depending on your initial fitness level, explains cardiology professor Peter Swoboda, of the University of Leeds (UK), in an article published in The Conversation.
Two hours a week to reduce cardiovascular risk by 20%
As a preamble, good news for sedentary people: it only takes a little exercise to see benefits. One or two hours of brisk walking or cycling per week can reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality by 20%. This initial phase provides the most significant reductions in cardiac risk.
As you increase the duration of exercise, the gains become less significant. Beyond 4 to 6 hours per week, the benefits even reach a plateau. But be careful, this does not mean that additional effort is useless, specifies the researcher.
The heart of an athlete
Studies show that exercising 7 to 9 hours per week can lead to structural changes in the heart, such as increased heart mass and dilation of the heart chambers. These changes improve fitness and enable better performance, such as running a marathon faster. Although these modifications were previously associated with elite athletes, they are available to anyone who engages in regular training.
For those short on time, high-intensity exercise (HIIT) can provide similar benefits in a fraction of the time. These sessions, often 20 minutes long, combine short but intense efforts with brief rest periods. Although these programs improve blood pressure and cholesterol, studies on their long-term impact are still limited.
Weekend athletes
If you can’t fit exercise into your weekdays, concentrate it on the weekend, recommends Professor Swoboda. A study carried out on 37,000 participants shows in particular that “weekend athletes” benefit from the same reductions in cardiovascular risks as those who spread their activity over the entire week.
Health
