We have all heard the phrase,
“Did you get your steps in today?”
Portable ergometers and pedometers, in the form of wearable wrist watches, have become a wildly popular way of measuring how many steps we take in a day. It has become common practice to check our progress with the hope that being more active, by gradually taking more steps, will help our cardiovascular health. What if there is more to the story of our health than just taking steps for “cardio” everyday?
While reading from the August 2021 edition of the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) Journal, Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise (MSSE), I noticed a study on rats and their ability to strengthen the heart. In order to measure the adaptations the heart developed after a 12 -exercise program, they had one group of rats who did nothing and three groups of rats doing different exercise interventions. The first group were assigned 60 minutes a day of treadmill running for five days per week. The second group were assigned weighted ladder climbing for three days per week. The third group did a combination of three days of treadmill running and two days of weighted ladder climbing per week.
The results were astounding! The rats who were exposed to the exercise interventions showed an increase in positive adaptations to the heart compared to the rats who did nothing. The authors wrote in conclusion,
“The heart adapts differently to each exercise intervention, and a combination of aerobic and resistance training may have the greatest benefit for cardiac health and performance” (Boldt, Herzog, et al., 2021).
I know you are probably wondering, “Why am I reading a post about rats??” The simple answer is we study different species of animals with the hope to find viable evidence that we could replicate the same results, from similar study parameters, before proceeding to human studies. However, I wrote this to say that we often get caught up in doing the same reciprocating activities week to week. We look at a goal from our watch that we either achieve every day or fail to achieve and say that is good enough. In actuality, we need BOTH resistance and cardiovascular exercise. Boldt and Herzog’s final remarks offer a great take away,
“Whether an individual’s goal is to prevent or recover from cardiovascular disease or to improve their 10k race time, the benefits of resistance exercise training should not be overlooked. There has been a lot of effort convincing people to think about getting in their daily steps, but what about their daily reps?”- Boldt and Herzog
Reference: BOLDT, KEVIN; JOUMAA, VENUS; TURNBULL, JEANNINE; FEDAK, PAUL W. M.; HERZOG, WALTER, Mechanical and Structural Remodeling of Cardiac Muscle after Aerobic and Resistance Exercise Training in Rats, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: August 2021 - Volume 53 - Issue 8 - p 1583-1594 doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002625
