Women benefit more from exercise than men and with less effort, study finds

Physical exercise has established itself as a fundamental pillar for maintaining a healthy and active life in modern society. However, The amount and type of exercise recommended may vary depending on age and gender.

Even if Terms of Service They generally recommend that adult men and women get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, with muscle-strengthening activities at least twice per week. Various research has shown that there is a gender gap when it comes to exercise.

Now a new study adds to this evidence, but discovers something unexpected: Women may exercise less frequently than men, but they experience greater cardiovascular benefits.

He study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, analyzed data from more than 412,000 adults Americans using the National Health Interview Survey database. Participants (55% of whom were women) provided survey data on leisure-time physical activity between 1997 and 2019.

The researchers of Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai examined sex-specific outcomes regarding frequency, duration, intensity, and type of physical activity.

The results showed that Even though women exercised less than men, curiously “the risk of mortality was reduced by 24% in women and 15% in men”. he said in a release the lead author of the study Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, director of the Healthy Aging Research Institute in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute.

Although exercise was associated with a reduced risk of premature death in both sexes, the benefits were greater in women and required less effort.

The investigation revealed that men have reached their maximum profit survive by practicing aerobic physical activity, such as brisk walking or cycling, for about five hours a week, while women achieved the same degree of survival benefit from exercise a little less than two and a half hours per week.

Along the same lines, when it comes to muscle building activities such as lifting weights or body exercises, Men needed three sessions per week to get their maximum benefit, and women achieved this with just one session per week.

“Our study does not suggest that women should exercise less, but rather encourages those who do not exercise enough for various reasons to believe that even relatively small amounts of exercise can provide significant benefits.” she declared. Guardian Study co-author Dr. Hongwei Ji of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University.

As further motivation, Cheng stated that Women make even greater gains if they perform more than two and a half hours of aerobic exercise per week, or two or more sessions of muscle-strengthening activities.

“The benefit of this study is that women may get more out of each minute of moderate to vigorous activity than men. “It’s an encouraging notion that we hope women will take seriously,” the co-author said. Martha Gulati, MD director of preventive cardiology in the department of cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute.

The researchers aren’t sure why these differences occur, but they write: “Physiological studies have shown that women have greater vascular conductance and blood flow during exercise, and have greater density of capillaries per unit of body mass. » compared to men.

The team notes as a limitation of the study that it was based on self-reported exercise and did not include physical activity associated with household activities.

Still, the authors hope the data will encourage women who don’t exercise enough to think that even relatively small amounts can be beneficial.

“I hope this pioneering research will motivate women who do not currently engage in regular physical activity to understand that they can reap huge benefits for every increase in regular exercise they can invest in their long-term health . “, said Christine M. Albert, MD, MPH director of the cardiology department at the Smidt Heart Institute.