Research pinpoints number of weekly visits to gym to get ticker into shape
SCIENTISTS have discovered that you can exercise yourself young at the gym — but there’s an important catch.
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SCIENTISTS have discovered that you can exercise yourself young — but the catch is you have to go to the gym five times a week.
New research published in the Journal of Physiology has found the exact number of days you have to work out to keep your heart young.
As we age our arteries stiffen and increase the chance of heart disease, especially if coupled with a sedentary lifestyle.
Any form of exercise reduces the risk but daily, vigorous and lifelong endurance exercise training has been proven to prevent arteries from stiffening with age.
Scientists from the University of Texas have now pinned down exactly how much exercise was needed to maintain good heart health.
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Studying 102 seniors over the age to 60, they spilt the group into four and gave each group an exercise “dose” from less than two sessions per week, two to three per week, four to five and up to seven sessions at the gym per week.
The researchers found those with a lifelong history of two to three sessions per week had more youthful middle-sized arteries but those who committed to four to five sessions a week had younger large central arteries as well as better middle-sized arteries.
Dr Benjamin Levine, one of the authors, said the findings would help younger people take preventable action.
“This work is really exciting because it enables us to develop exercise programs to keep the heart youthful and even turn back time on older hearts and blood vessels,” he said.