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Resistance Exercises: More than just Building Muscle Mass

 


What Is Aerobic Exercise?

At some point you have probably heard someone saying something about doing “cardio”. 

Well, aerobic exercise is any structured physical activity that results in an increased heart rate and breathing rate. So running, swimming, jogging, and so on are all defined as aerobic exercise. Such activities require energy and for that to happen our body requires oxygen and delivery of it to specific tissues. Doing aerobic exercise over time will result in an increased aerobic capacity which means the body has a better ability in bringing oxygen in via the lungs, better delivery to tissues as result of improved cardiovascular function, and better uptake and utilization at tissular level (via mitochondria).

What Is Resistance Exercise?

Resistance exercise is a different type of exercise in which the goal is to build muscle and increase muscular force as muscles are very plastic and adaptable. Resistance because you put force (such as a dumbbell or even force of gravity) against the direction that muscles contract. Now this can happen through isometric and isotonic contraction, with both referring to changes in length of a muscle during the resistance exercise.

Isometric contraction: where length of the activated muscle remains the same during contraction, such as holding a dumbbell in a flexed arm position.

Concentric contraction: when length of an activated muscle is shortening. For instance, lifting a dumbbell during bicep curl. Note that this shortening is happening as the force produced by muscle is greater than the load.

Eccentric contraction: when activated muscle is lengthening as the load on muscle becomes higher than the maximal force produced by the muscle. Note that the load should not be merely higher than the force of muscle for eccentric contraction to happen. For instance, when you are putting an object down gently, the muscle is still active but the length is increasing.


Research

Starting with cholesterol levels, many studies have been conducted to identify the effects of resistance training on HDL and LDL content. A study investigating the effects of various resistance training exercises; completed for 8 repetitions and 3 sets (for 10 weeks) with 2 minutes of rest between the sets, on 45 elderly active women saw a significant decrease in LDL levels compared to pre-intervention measures (Fahlman et al, 2002). On the other hand, a study involving 26 men (60-76 years old) completed a training program involving the knee extensors once a week over 12 weeks, saw that for both eccentric and concentric contractions caused LDL levels to decrease but there was a greater decrease seen with eccentric training (Chen et al. 2017).

When researching the effect of resistance training on cardiovascular disease in general, a similar positive story can be seen. A study investigating the effect of resistance training (3 times a week for an hour) on 207 healthy elderly participants (65-74 years old) saw that resistance training improved a person’s insulin sensitivity index (a factor in determining CVD) in the 12 months of training (Thomas et al, 2005). In addition, a study of 69 adults (51–65-years old) looked at the effect of aerobic resistance and a program including a combination of both aerobic and resistance training on CVD risk factors (Schroeder et al. 2019). This study actually concluded that in as little as 8 weeks, a combined training program may provide more comprehensive CVD benefits compared to aerobic or resistance training alone (Schroeder et al. 2019).

Therefore, resistance training on its own or coupled with aerobic training can provide a multitude of benefits.

Exercise

            Now, when dealing with resistance exercises of any kind, it is important for a person to approach this method of exercise carefully. It is critical to remember to start slowly, understand the path of movement for a given exercise and then work up to heavier loads incrementally. If you have any worries about doing this safely, you can always search out a licensed healthcare provider who can teach you how to move properly in a given exercise. Yet, RESISTANCE EXERCISES ARE SAFE WHEN DONE PROPERLY. Furthermore, the amount of cardiovascular stress experienced during resistance exercises will also depend on the muscle groups used and the amount of mass activated during a given exercise (European Society of Cardiology, 2001). Therefore, more cardiovascular stress will occur during double arm exercises in comparison to single arm exercises or during leg exercises in comparison to arm exercises. Therefore, it is important to first identify which exercises you would want to complete and then learn how to conduct these exercises safely. Moreover, simple body weight exercises can be very effective as well.



**If you believe that resistance or aerobic exercise will help you or someone you know, please contact a registered healthcare professional for more information.

**For more detail on this topic or to recommend future content, please email us.


Articles Referenced

Chen, T. C. C., Tseng, W. C., Huang, G. L., Chen, H. L., Tseng, K. W., & Nosaka, K. (2017). Superior effects of eccentric to concentric knee extensor resistance training on physical fitness, insulin sensitivity and lipid profiles of elderly men. Frontiers in physiology, 8, 209

Fahlman, M. M., Boardley, D., Lambert, C. P., & Flynn, M. G. (2002). Effects of endurance training and resistance training on plasma lipoprotein profiles in elderly women. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 57(2), B54–B60. 

Schroeder, E. C., Franke, W. D., Sharp, R. L., & Lee, D. C. (2019). Comparative effectiveness of aerobic, resistance, and combined training on cardiovascular disease risk factors: A randomized controlled trial. PloS one, 14(1), e0210292. 

Thomas, G. N., Hong, A. W., Tomlinson, B., Lau, E., Lam, C. W., Sanderson, J. E., & Woo, J. (2005). Effects of Tai Chi and resistance training on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly Chinese subjects: a 12‐month longitudinal, randomized, controlled intervention study. Clinical endocrinology, 63(6), 663-669.

Working Group on Cardiac Rehabilitation & Exercice Physiology and Working Group on Heart Failure of the European Society of Cardiology (2001). Recommendations for exercise training in chronic heart failure patients. European heart journal, 22(2), 125–135.

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