For cardiac patients, aerobic exercise (AT) and resistance training (RT) is highly recommended. In an upcoming study in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, researchers compared two resistance training regimens of different intensity in combination with aerobic exercise and determined that higher volume of resistance in combination with aerobics does not yield any additional benefits.
Investigators compared the effectiveness of RT combined with AT in nearly 300 patients who were randomly divided into two groups. Each RT session consisted of 10 different resistance exercises, and the groups performed either two sets of 12 repetitions or three sets of 15 repetitions, twice per week. Patients at the higher repetition level were performing about twice the exercise of the other group.
Both groups showed equivalent improvement in exercise capacity, muscular strength, hemodynamics, and blood chemistries regardless of RT volume. Blood lipids and other cardiovascular risk indicators were generally improved.
The results point to a reduction in overall cardiac risk, along with improvement in physiologic performance variables that should result in an improvement in quality of life.