Friday, November 19, 2010

Can Resistance Exercise Offer Different Cardio Benefits?

Resistance exercise such as weight training affects blood vessels differently than aerobic exercise and offers other cardiovascular benefits, finds a new study.
Researchers compared blood vessel (vascular) responses to two types of moderate-intensity workouts: three sets of 10 repetitions of eight resistance exercises and 30 minutes of aerobic cycling.

There were significant differences in the vascular responses to the two types of exercises!
>> Resistance exercise produced greater increases in blood flow to the limbs and
led to a longer-lasting decrease in blood pressure after exercise, while
>> Aerobic exercise reduced arterial stiffness, but without an increase in blood flow.

"Resistance exercise may offer greater benefits from the increases in blood flow to active muscles and could be implemented as a companion to an aerobic training program."
They said their findings support previous research showing that resistance exercise has unique effects on blood pressure and limb blood flow.

This study shows that resistance exercise has many benefits that are unique when it comes to your cardiovascular system. Not only does it increase blood flow to your limbs, but it also helps in strengthening muscles, bones and surrounding soft tissues and burns fat! When I hit the gym, I usually see people on the treadmill or bicycling, but few put an effort to make few bouts of resistance exercise.
My recommendation: combine resistance training and aerobics in your daily exercise training program, you'll benefit from any angle possible!

The study appears in the November issue of Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

No comments:

Post a Comment