It Takes More Than Cardio For A Healthy Heart

It Takes More Than Cardio For A Healthy Heart
By: Josh Proch, CSCS

When you think of heart health, what typically comes to mind?

A low-fat diet and cardio, right?

However, new research is showing that cardio may not be enough and may not even be the best way to improve heart health by itself.

I first wrote about this in a blog post titled “Push Up Capacity As A Predictor Of Cardiac Health” where research showed that men who could perform 40+ push-ups in a row had a 96% less chance of a cardiac event in the upcoming year, but those who could pass their stress test but not the push-ups where still at an increased risk.

A second study out of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark has found that strength training reduces heart fat better than High-Intensity Interval Training (aka HIIT). What they found that was after 12 weeks of 3 45-minutes sessions per week of either weightlifting or HIIT, the weightlifting group decreased heart fat by 31%, but the HIIT group did not see a significant decrease in heart fat.

Interestingly, the HIIT group saw a 32% percent decrease in body fat outside of the heart and the weightlifting group saw a 24% decrease in body fat outside the heart.

So, what does this mean?

Strength training seems to improve heart health better than cardio and HIIT, but that doesn’t mean cardio and HIIT should be abandoned all together, for fat loss and health. Instead, they should be included in your training, but incorporated by using a hierarchy of training.

First you would look at how many days you are able to dedicate to exercise each week. From there you can use this quick chart.

1-3 days per week available: Strength Training
2-3 days per week available: 3 Strength, or 2 Strength and 1 HIIT, or 2 Strength and 1 Cardio
3-4 days per week available: 3 Strength and 1 HIIT, or 3 Strength and 1 Cardio, or 2 Strength 2 HIIT, or 2 Strength 2 Cardio, or 2 Strength 1 HIIT and 1 Cardio.
5+ days per week available: 3 Strength, 2 days at most HIIT, light cardio remaining days.

There is no perfect way to program, other than the recommendation of making strength training the backbone of your exercise routine and then supplement it with various HIIT and cardio workouts.

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