Women may get more health benefits from regular exercise than men
Researchers say women don’t have to hit the pool or the track as often as men to achieve the same health benefits. microgen/Getty Images
- Men and women who exercise regularly are less likely to die prematurely of any cause, including a cardiovascular event, compared to those who are sedentary.
- Researchers also report that women see more pronounced benefits than men from regular exercise.
- They added that exercise routines should contain both aerobic exercise and strength training.
Most everyone benefits from regular exercise, but women may see bigger cardiovascular benefits than men — and in less time, too, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
In their study, researchers looked at a group of 400,000 men and women in the United States over the course of two decades.
They reported that women who exercised regularly were 24% less likely to die from any cause during the study period and also had a 36% lower risk of fatal heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular event compared to women who did not exercise regularly.
At the same time, men who exercised regularly were 15% less likely to die and had a 14% lower risk of fatal cardiovascular event compared to sedentary men.
“Heart disease is the leading causeTrusted Source of death for women in the United States and can affect women at any age [and it’s] responsible for about one in every five female deaths, but research has shown that only about half (56 percent) of U.S. women recognize that heart disease is their number one killer,” said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a clinical associate professor at the University of Southern California and chief medical advisor for Garage Gym Reviews who was not involved in the study.
“The study shows that women who regularly exercise have a lower chance of premature death and fatal cardiovascular events compared to men who have similar exercise habits, underscoring the importance of getting regular exercise for women’s longevity and highlighting the potential for changing preconceived health outcomes,” Dasgupta told Medical News Today.
What is the right amount of exercise?
So, how much exercise is enough exercise?
For men, the researchers reported that around 300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 110 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week does the trick.
The dose-response relationship of activity to benefit also differed for men and women. For women, at least, it appears a little exercise goes a long way.
The researchers reported that women who engaged in 140 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise weekly saw an 18% reduced death risk while just 57 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise a week produced a 19% reduced death risk.
Men had to exercise twice as much for the same benefit, reaching the 18% mark with 300 minutes of moderate aerobic weekly exercise and the 19% mark with 110 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.
“We hope this study will help everyone, especially women, understand they are poised to gain tremendous benefits from exercise,” said Dr. Susan Cheng, a study co-author and a cardiologist and the chair of Women’s Cardiovascular Health and Population Science in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, in a press releaseTrusted Source. “Women, on average, tend to exercise less than men and hopefully these findings inspire more women to add extra movement to their lives.”
Strength training matters, too
The benefits of regular exercise weren’t limited to aerobics.
Strength training also appeared to have significant benefits and women were once again the bigger beneficiaries.
For instance, women who did regular strength training exercises saw a 19% reduced risk of death while men saw an 11% reduced risk compared to their inactive peers. That also includes a 30% lower risk of a cardiovascular event for women and an 11% lower risk of cardiovascular events for men.
As to why those results might be, it comes down to the differences in men’s and women’s bodies.
“Females exhibit greater vascular conductance and blood flow during exercise, with females having a higher density of capillaries per unit of skeletal muscle when compared with males,” said Dr. Tracy Zaslow, a primary care sports medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles and a team physician for Angel City Football Club and LA Galaxy.
“Accordingly, although females have generally lower muscle strength at baseline, when both males and females undergo strength training, females experience greater relative improvements in strength, which is a stronger predictor of mortality than muscle mass,” Zaslow, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today.
Some recommendations on daily exercise for men and women
Zaslow applauded the efforts of the researchers to fine-tune recommendations for exercise and healthy habits between the sexes.
“Current recommendations are agnostic,” she said. “Sex-specific considerations could enhance individual risk assessments and tailored exercise prescriptions in the effort to increase engagement in physical activity.”
Zaslow also provided some tips for women — and men — looking to work more daily exercise into their lives. These include:
- Start with small amounts of exercise and slowly add more as strength and endurance are built.
- Find a partner to exercise with to help hold you accountable and make it more enjoyable.
- If time permits, try walking to do errands instead of driving between stops.
- Choose the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Listen to music or a fun podcast during workouts.
- Mix it up! Don’t do the same workout every time. Switch between strength and endurance, and try different activities, such as walking, yoga, hiking, pickleball, and others.
The best exercise time is different for men and women, study finds
The time of day people choose to exercise could have different effects. David Trood/Getty Images
- A new study finds there are optimal times of day for achieving specific goals with exercise.
- The research shows that for women, in particular, exercising in the morning or evening produces different results.
- The study also includes the effect of exercise times on an individual’s mood.
Not everyone exercises for the same reason. For some, exercise is a means of addressing a health issue such as hypertension. Some work out to build strength in one part of the body or another, and some to improve their mood.
A new study suggests the time of day at which a person exercises may produce different results. In addition, those results are not the same for women and men.
Professor Paul J. Arciero, lead author of the study and professor at the Health and Human Physiological Sciences Department at Skidmore College in New York, tells BBC News that the best time for exercise is when people can fit it into their schedules.
Nonetheless, the study reveals certain time periods when individuals are most likely to achieve specific exercise goals.
Dr. Asad R. Siddiqi, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Weill Cornell Medicine in NYC, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today:
“I appreciated the authors’ stated goal of adding to our understanding of the effects of training on female athletes and how that may differ from male athletes.“
“Women are notoriously underrepresented in the medical literature, and even hypothesizing that there may be a difference between how different biological sexes respond to exercise indicates a level of thoughtfulness and nuance that has long been missing from scientific inquiry.”
— Dr. Asad R. Siddiqi
The study was published in frontiers in Physiology.
A fit group of participants
The researchers tracked the benefits of exercise in a group of 30 women and 26 men who were assigned to exercise in the morning — specifically between 6:00 to 8:00 am — or in the evening from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.
All participants were healthy, non-smoking, athletically trained individuals.
The participants trained according to the PRISETrusted Source (Protein pacing intake combined with Resistance functional, Interval sprint, Stretching, Endurance exercise) exercise and fitness paradigm developed by Dr. Arciero.
All participants followed a designed healthy meal plan and intake was similar in morning and evening groups.
The authors of the study measured a range of outcomes, including muscular strength, endurance and power, body composition, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, respiratory exchange ratio, and mood states, as well as their dietary intake.
Dr. Siddiqi cautioned that the participants “were all healthy, active, lean, and weight-stable individuals, which may not be particularly reflective of the habits, demographics, or goals of the larger population.”
He noted, in particular, that they were middle-aged adults with no cardiovascular disease. Thus, this would not be representative of the general population.
Enhancing mood
One of the unique aspects of the study is its exploration of exercise time of day on mood.
“[F]or the first time, we show that exercise time of day significantly alters mood state in women and men,” Dr. Arciero told MNT.
“Specifically, women who exercise in the [p.m.] significantly boost overall mood state compared to those exercising in the morning.”
— Prof. Paul J. Arciero
Dr. Siddiqi also pointed out another interesting finding:
“The men studied had greater improvement in perceived mood state than women. Exercise seemed to decrease tension, depression, anger, substantially in men regardless of time of day, whereas improvements in tension and depression were only seen in women who exercised at night.”
He added that studying mood is inherently more difficult due to its reliance on self-reporting.
Physiological benefits
All participants showed improvements in all areas after the 12-week trial. However, the nature of improvements varied.
- Women who exercised in the morning reduced more total fat and abdominal fat, lowered their blood pressure to a greater degree, and increased lower body muscle power.
- Women who exercised in the evening saw more improvement in their upper body muscle strength, mood, and satiety.
The effect was less pronounced in men. However, there were differences:
- Men who exercised at either time of day improved their physical performance.
- Men who exercised in the evening saw benefits in heart and metabolic health, as well as lower fatigue.
Why the difference between sexes?
Dr. Arciero noted that “a direct comparison” between women and men was not the goal of the study.
“However,” he said, “several potential mechanisms for the differences between women and men with regards to their response to exercising at different times of the day may include; variations in neuromuscular function, capillary density, hunger responses, and fat metabolism between women and men.”
“[These differences] suggest molecular, endocrine, metabolic, and neuromuscular factors likely contribute to these diurnal variations in health and physical performance outcomes between women and men.”
— Prof. Paul J. Arciero
“The precise mechanism,” Dr. Arciero continued, “is not clear, but may be related to neuro-hormonal-psychological effects of exercising later in the day as a form of a ‘stress-reliever’ that may also favorably impact sleep quality. It’s interesting to note that [p.m.] exercise in men also significantly reduced feelings of fatigue.”
The study’s findings suggest that people consider the time of day at which they will exercise as they develop exercise or fitness programs with their physicians, added Dr. Arciero.