You’ve heard that 150 minutes/week of exercise is needed for heart health, but is 150 minutes over seven days really enough for optimal heart health?
New research suggests that people may need considerably more activity to achieve a major reduction in the risk of heart attack and stroke.
An observational study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that substantial cardiovascular protection was associated with about 560 to 610 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week.
Type of movement isn’t as important as the accumulation of minutes and the level of effort.
Moderate to vigorous effort would mean like a rating of 5 to 9 on a 10 scale of effort.
More Exercise May Mean More Protection
The researchers found that 150 minutes of weekly exercise was associated with only a modest reduction in cardiovascular risk. Why settle for modest when it comes to your heart?
People who reached 560 to 610 minutes per week, however, had more than a 30% lower risk according to the study’s definition of substantial protection.
Only about 12% of the participants reached that higher level of activity.
The findings don’t mean everyone needs to exercise for 10 hours a week.
Instead, they suggest that the amount of exercise needed for basic protection may be different from the amount associated with the greatest potential benefit.
The study also found that a person’s existing fitness level could influence how much exercise they need.
People with lower cardiorespiratory fitness appeared to require somewhat more weekly activity to achieve the same reduction in cardiovascular risk as adults who were already highly fit.
One way researchers assess fitness is through VO2 max, which measures how effectively the body takes in and uses oxygen during intense exercise.
What the Researchers Studied
Researchers from Macao Polytechnic University analyzed data from 17,088 participants in the UK Biobank.
The participants had an average age of 57. Everyone wore a wrist activity monitor for seven consecutive days so researchers could track their usual physical activity.
Participants also completed a cycling test that researchers used to estimate their VO2 max.
The researchers took other factors into account as well, including smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, body mass index, resting heart rate, blood pressure and self-rated health.
More Than 1,200 Heart Related Events
During an average follow-up period of 7.8 years, researchers recorded 1,233 cardiovascular events.
These included 874 cases of atrial fibrillation, 156 heart attacks, 111 cases of heart failure and 92 strokes.
Participants who met the standard recommendation of 150 minutes of exercise per week had an approximately 8% to 9% lower cardiovascular risk.
That benefit was fairly consistent regardless of fitness level.
The larger reductions were associated with much higher activity levels, however.
Participants with the lowest fitness levels needed 30 to 50 additional minutes of exercise per week to achieve benefits similar to those seen in the fittest participants.
For example, a 20% reduction in cardiovascular events was associated with about 370 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week among people with the lowest fitness levels.
Those with the highest fitness levels needed around 340 minutes for a similar reduction.
The researchers said this demonstrates the greater challenge faced by people who are less physically fit.
Study Limitations
Researchers found an association between exercise, fitness and cardiovascular risk, but they were not able to show that exercising over 150 minutes directly caused the reduction in heart problems.
The UK Biobank participants may also have been healthier and fitter than the general population.
Fitness was estimated rather than measured directly, and researchers didn’t evaluate sedentary time or lower-intensity physical activity.
The researchers still consider the current 150 minute recommendation a useful minimum for cardiovascular protection.
But their findings suggest that people seeking greater protection might benefit from considerably more activity.
