Cardiovascular benefits of strength training

for the nature of this article, please not that strength training means just that - lifting heavy weights at low reps where the training goal is to maximize your single rep max. however, even at lower intensities strength training still provides many significant heart and health benefits.

A Case Study:
By Frederick C. Hatfield Ph.D.

In the first and only study of it's kind, noted cardiologist Dr. Kenneth Lynch - himself a marathon runner - pumped 20 milicurries of technetium 99m, a radioactive tracer substance that attaches itself to the red blood cells into the veins of a fellow who had been a powerlifter for over 25 years - that fellow being myself.

His plan was to study my heart via radio - angiography for the purpose of seeing what he could see. He had done the same kind of test on many distance runners in the past, but never on an elite powerlifter. I was placed on a supine bicycle ergometer under a nuclear camera that was interfaced with an electrocardiogram and a computer. The computer converted the radioactive images picked up by the camera into visual images (on a TV monitor) of my heart as it moved through systole and diastole.

And what did the good doctor find? Well, of course, it didn't surprise me a bit, but the doctor was flabbergasted.

The left ventricle is the part of the heart that pushes blood throughout your body. It also happens to be the part of the heart most often associated with cardiac diseases such as myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, and similar conditions. That's the part of my heart Dr. Lynch was most interested in.

As the ergometer workload increased in intensity, here is how my heart responded in regard to the one parameter most often overlooked by researchers who have displayed a penchant for comparing weight trainees with runners-ejection fraction (EF). That's the percentage of blood in the left ventricle that's pumped out with each beat.

-at 900 kg meter / min workload: HR=93 ; EF=79 %
-at 1100 kg meter / min workload: HR=117 ; EF=84 %
-at 1300 kg meter / min workload: HR=133 ; EF=96 %
During the last six minutes of the stress test, when the workload equaled an average of 1300 kg meters / min., my heart rate varied as high as 160 beats per minute. No left ventricle wall abnormalities were found, meaning that the blood supply to my heart muscle - via the coronary arteries - was unimpeded.
A few noteworthy comments are in order. First, according to Dr. Lynch, he's never tested a marathon runner with a better ejection fraction than mine. My ventricular muscle, it appears, contracts fully enough to squeeze almost every bit of the blood out of it before it relaxes to fill up again for the next beat.

Also of note was the fact that no marathon runner alive can come close to matching the workload that I performed at, let alone keep their average heart rate at 133 beats per minute. Most marathon runners aren't physically strong enough to endure workloads of beyond 800 - 900 kg meters / min. without incurring massive work - stopping oxygen debt…

Many recent studies have shown conclusively that weight training can reduce the incidence of coronary disease by significantly reducing your low density lipoproteins and increasing your high density lipoproteins. HDL cholesterol in the blood prevents the buildup of LDL cholesterol on your arterial walls. One study showed that three weight training sessions per week (lasting 45 - 60 minutes) can produce a 10 - 15 % reduction in cholesterol, and up to a 30 % reduction in blood - borne fat (triglycerides)…

To me, a better way to go is to stop trying to compare apples to oranges. Since fitness means different things to different people, whatever form of fitness you strive for should be the kind that's going to improve the quality of your life most.

Interesting and it makes sense. I am in the gym 2x per week for the first time in ages and I've been enjoying it.

I have seen some interesting case studies showing that body builders and power lifters have heart issues as a result of left ventricle hypertrophy and subsequent cardiac tissue imbalance that actually reduced the efficiency of the heart and led to premature coronary artery disease in seemingly healthy folks. That's the extreme end of the spectrum however.

Interesting and it makes sense. I am in the gym 2x per week for the first time in ages and I've been enjoying it.

I have seen some interesting case studies showing that body builders and power lifters have heart issues as a result of left ventricle hypertrophy and subsequent cardiac tissue imbalance that actually reduced the efficiency of the heart and led to premature coronary artery disease in seemingly healthy folks. That's the extreme end of the spectrum however.

intersting, gotta link?

i'd wonder if the studies took into consideration potential steroid or GH use and accounted for that in their findings.

Here are a couple of studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19246500

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22386289

Whatever form of fitness you strive for should be the kind that's going to improve the quality of your life most.

I've been totally sold on this for a while. Functional fitness. Get fit to enable you to enjoy/get the most out of your life. I notice that as I am getting older, I'm stiffening up more and more in my joints and muscles, so I'm doing more and more stretching and that has been helping me feel better and reducing the aches and pains I get from time to time.

I've worn a hear rate monitor while lifting weights for strength training, and my observation for me was that my heart rate hardly budged at all, but I knew (from feeling it) that my heart was pumping harder. So I'm guessing that the impact of strength training on the heart is indeed different than endurance training and one does not transfer over to the other for cardiac training.

Here are a couple of studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19246500

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22386289

i had a quick look at these and there is a huge gap between what you said and what the papers actually show. essentially there is not enough of a statistical difference between the genetic issue of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) or athlete's heart to say definitively that elite strength trainers suffer from this issue.

i think at best one could surmise that those with a genetic predisposition for HCM may be a greater risk if they also participate in long term heavy resistance training. it's a cause and effect issue and far more research needs to be conducted before any sort of conclusion can be made.

that last sentence applies to many theories when it comes to our physiology; there is simply far too much genetic variation and far too much unknown information about how our bodies operate on a metabolic level to definitively say how we operate in that repsect.

Here are a couple of studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19246500

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22386289

The first abstract makes me curious - why using an age group younger than 35 in such a study? Would it not be Logical if the researchers monitored older trainees as well?

I remember reading about training in the 80s as a teen when it was apparently rather common to not "hold" your breath, which I remember as being frowned upon since it apparently made your heart too big and strong (books on running and the like, so not really strength-related)

I was sort of confused when I read in Rippetoe's work about the Valsalva maneuver, simply because it was exactly the same movement that was frowned upon.

I've been totally sold on this for a while. Functional fitness. Get fit to enable you to enjoy/get the most out of your life. I notice that as I am getting older, I'm stiffening up more and more in my joints and muscles, so I'm doing more and more stretching and that has been helping me feel better and reducing the aches and pains I get from time to time.

besides stretching, a balanced resistance training program that uses full ROM movements may give you the same benenfit. a balanced program of resistance training is in effect a stretching program as well, so your stiff joints may be a function of muscular imbalances.

I've worn a hear rate monitor while lifting weights for strength training, and my observation for me was that my heart rate hardly budged at all, but I knew (from feeling it) that my heart was pumping harder. So I'm guessing that the impact of strength training on the heart is indeed different than endurance training and one does not transfer over to the other for cardiac training.

yes, the impact on the heart is different but i disgree with you here and say that there is positive transfer from strength to cardiac training. a stronger pump that is able to push more blood per stroke is more efficient and therefore does not need to work as hard which equals lower HR.

I was sort of confused when I read in Rippetoe's work about the Valsalva maneuver, simply because it was exactly the same movement that was frowned upon.

used correctly, the valsalva maneuver is something that should only be done for single rep efforts. the reason it's used on exercises such as the bench press is to maintain a stable chest cavity. if your chest cavity is falling while you are trying to press in compromises your ability to push with max effort. holding your breath for an entire set however, is something that definitely shouldn't be done.

used correctly, the valsalva maneuver is something that should only be done for single rep efforts. the reason it's used on exercises such as the bench press is to maintain a stable chest cavity. if your chest cavity is falling while you are trying to press in compromises your ability to push with max effort. holding your breath for an entire set however, is something that definitely shouldn't be done.

And I do not think that anyone could hold their breath in a set of, say, 5 or 8 repetitions.

I understood it in such a way that when going up in a squat for example, I brace myself with it and exhale only in the last part of the movement. Heavier (for me) squats feel definitely "safer" if I do it that way.

And I do not think that anyone could hold their breath in a set of, say, 5 or 8 repetitions.

I understood it in such a way that when going up in a squat for example, I brace myself with it and exhale only in the last part of the movement. Heavier (for me) squats feel definitely "safer" if I do it that way.

well it is possible and i supposed an argument could be made for the positive training benefit of doing that. i would say it's highly intensity and rep dependent though.

yes, filling the chest cavity with air and holding it helps to stabilize the chest at key points in many exercises, incl the squat and bench pr.

well it is possible and i supposed an argument could be made for the positive training benefit of doing that. i would say it's highly intensity and rep dependent though.

yes, filling the chest cavity with air and holding it helps to stabilize the chest at key points in many exercises, incl the squat and bench pr.

I'd be curious about benefits of medium rep squats while holding breath, apart from teaching the body to work in a sort of hypoxic state?

Just an observation, it does not really work that well if I do deadlifts with it. Here, a pressing exhale works better. Which makes sense, since the lift is mainly "pulled" with the back.