Lifting & cardiac health-a quick survey

kapoorpk
kapoorpk Posts: 244 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Trying to find out the correlation between lifting and heart health using resting heart rate as a proxy metric for heart health. Thus, 3 quick questions:

1) how often do you weight train and in what rep range?
2) how often and for what duration do you perform any cardio, if any at all?
3) what's your resting heart rate or pulse rate?

I just want to see how clear of a correlation exists between wright training and the positive cardiac effects. I will post the results at the end.

I am sure some one has a study that can show me the outcome , but am still curious to survey some real people for the above questions.


Thanks.

Replies

  • ice_fire_89
    ice_fire_89 Posts: 25
    1. 3 days a week. 6-12 reps.
    2. 5 days a week. ~40 minutes (first month of Insanity workouts)
    3. RHR is 75 in the morning.
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    1) 4 days / week. 1-5 reps / set (I do 5/3/1 and competitive powerlifting)
    2) no cardio
    3) Last I measured it was 38

    I have no idea what a study might say about this topic. I have very keen insight into what MY body says. I used to do cardio and heavy lifting. For me (older guy), they are not compatible if I am working at 1RM numbers. A one hour jog will negatively affect my next lifting session. So I cut out the cardio other than a 10 minute warmup on the elliptical or treadmill before every lifting session.

    I used to do a one hour hill/jog program I have programmed on my treadmill 3x a week. A couple of months back, I gave it a go to see how I would do and I crushed it. I thought I may have lost some capacity because I hadn't done any cardio for 9 months. Nope. Hadn't lost a step. MIght even be better.

    That tells me that I can continue to lift heavy and maintain at least a functional measure of cardiovascular fitness. If not an above measure. That works for me. I doubt I could say the same about cardio visa vi strength. I can lift and stay in pretty good cardiovascular shape. I cannot run and stay strong. Seems like a no brainer. For me anyway.

    Tom
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    1) 3 days / wk, 4-8 reps
    2) 6x/wk, 25-50 min (3 walks and 3 runs)
    3) 64
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    There is limited significance to resting heart rate--whether doing lifting or cardio. Initial changes can occur for a newbie or someone returning to exercise after a long layoff, but the effect is fairly transient and variable.

    In other words, a decrease in resting heart rate from lifting is not indicative of a cardiovascular training effect, other than modest changes that might occur with someone just starting an exercise program (similar to the modest, adaptive increases in strength that can occur when someone starts or changes a cardio program).
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    1) how often do you weight train and in what rep range? 3x a week ,5-15 depending on the lift
    2) how often and for what duration do you perform any cardio, if any at all? 5-6x a week,1 hour
    3) what's your resting heart rate or pulse rate? 55
  • texredbone
    texredbone Posts: 5 Member
    Weight train 2 hours a week.
    Endurance/cardio training 15 hours.
    RHR 48
  • kapoorpk
    kapoorpk Posts: 244 Member
    There is limited significance to resting heart rate--whether doing lifting or cardio. Initial changes can occur for a newbie or someone returning to exercise after a long layoff, but the effect is fairly transient and variable.

    In other words, a decrease in resting heart rate from lifting is not indicative of a cardiovascular training effect, other than modest changes that might occur with someone just starting an exercise program (similar to the modest, adaptive increases in strength that can occur when someone starts or changes a cardio program).

    I am not sure if I follow. Its a well known fact that amongst other metrics, RHR is indicative of the heart muscle strength that gets stronger with exercise, implying that with a decreasing RHR the heart muscle does not have to work as hard to perform its function. I have seen this significantly improve and maintained with exercise. I don't find that to be a newbie thing. Scientifically, also supported by doctors, it is a factor that improves with exercise.

    Is it the only metric for heat health, No. But, I am not saying that either. Its the one, with blood pressure, that is supposed to improve with exercise. All I am trying to see is if weight lifting provides enough exercise (in place of cardio) that also strengthens the heart muscle, reflected in decreasing RHR or significant RHR improve must be achieved through more aerobic cardio.

    Thanks for your perspective but I am not finding evidence of what you are asserting.

    http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/All-About-Heart-Rate-Pulse_UCM_438850_Article.jsp

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