Longevity and good quality of life are often dependent on several factors, including brain and heart health. Amongst several other techniques to take care of either, Arnold Schwarzenegger recently wanted to focus on the heart. In his newsletter, he wanted to design an ideal workout for better heart health.
Alarmingly, he began his segment by pointing out how about one in three deaths is caused by some form of cardiovascular disease. To combat this, it was crucial to take care of the blood-pumping system through exercise.
A study on combined exercise training for cardiovascular health suggested that performing a combination of both cardio and weights as a part of one’s workout could maximize protection. The way one splits their time between the two determines how well one’s cardiovascular health could get.
While traditionally, cardio or aerobic training has been the top choice for keeping the heart healthy, one associates weight training more with fat loss and an increase in the lean muscle mass of an individual. A split routine between the two types provided the same benefits as a regular cardio workout but with a twist.
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“The scientists found that every 1 percent reduction in body fat is associated with a 3 percent reduction in hypertension, a 4 percent reduction in hypercholesterolemia, and an 8 percent reduction in metabolic syndrome.”
Additionally, weight training also aids fat loss when an individual consumes extra calories, thus making it one of the more efficient training techniques. But Schwarzenegger pointed out that all research in the end aimed toward how much exercise one needed to maintain a healthy heart.
“The World Health Organization recommends 150 minutes of exercise per week. But that doesn’t give much clarity about how to break it up.”
To do the needful, he pointed his readers in the right direction by providing an ideal workout split with the help of the study. For optimum results, one must train for one hour three times per week, such that one dedicates equal time to cardio and weights. To top it all off, he once even raved about how combining the two techniques was the way to go to increase longevity.
Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals how to increase lifespan through training
Schwarzenegger loves his randomized trial studies and several subjects that testify to the result of these experiments. One of these was a study on cardio and aerobic exercises, where nearly 100,000 individuals dedicated a part of their routines to practice weight training, cardio, or both.
In the end, the results were stunning since the research observed a 50% reduction in mortality risk amongst those who practiced both cardio and weights. Constant movement and being active were the keys to staying healthy, and longevity came through with the best of both worlds.
