Strength training is good for everyone, but women who train regularly get a significantly higher boost in longevity than men.Strength training is good for everyone, but women who train regularly get a significantly higher boost in longevity than men.A new study finds women who do strength training exercises two to three days a week are more likely to live longer and have a lower risk of death from heart disease, compared to women who do none.
Strength training is also good for bones, joints, mood and metabolic health. And at a time when many women focus on aerobic activity and hesitate to do weight training, the findings add to the evidence that a combination of both types of exercise is powerful medicine."Both should be prescribed," Gulati says.which evaluated the differences in the effects of exercise between men and women.
Women who did moderate intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, five times a week, reduced their risk of premature death by 24%, compared to 18% for men., a prevention-focused researcher at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, which provided grant support for the research..
People born female have less muscle and lower aerobic capacity in general. Also, women have more capillaries feeding part of their muscles, Shiroma says. The findings show women need to do less exercise to change their baseline of aerobic and muscular strength. "It might be that this relative increase in strength is what's driving this difference in benefit," he says.