USA Today
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
9D

Report adds weight to benefit of workouts

Exercising at moderate intensity helps protect against heart disease,
but high intensity may be even more beneficial, especially if combined
with weight training, a study of more than 40,000 men suggests.
Researchers have debated whether exercise intensity makes a significant
difference, but the study, in today's _Journal of the American Medical
Association_, finds that it does. Men who did high-intensity exercise
(running one hour or more a week) were 42% less likely to develop heart
disease than non-exercisers; those who walked briskly at a moderate pace
(three miles an hour) were 18% less likely than non-exercisers to
develop heart disease. Weight training's role in protecting the heart
also has been debated because it does not give the heart and lungs the
kind of workout they get from aerobic activity. But in the study, by the
Harvard School of Public Health, men who lifted weights 30 minutes or
more a week had a 23% lower risk of heart disease than men who didn't.
Researchers say the benefits may result in part from reductions in blood
pressure and body fat. Researchers theorize that adding a weight workout
to high-intesity exercise would reap even greater benefits.