Women get the same exercise benefits as men with less effort, study says

Scientists have discovered a gender gains gap.

Adults are advised to move their bodies for about 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, coupled with two sessions of muscle-strengthening, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, but new research has found that women and men may require separate guidelines.

The study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) found that women can exercise less often than men — yet receive greater cardiovascular gains.

“Women have historically and statistically lagged behind men in engaging in meaningful exercise. The beauty of this study is learning that women can get more out of each minute of moderate to vigorous activity than men do,” Professor Martha Gulati, director of Preventive Cardiology at Smidt Heart Institute and co-lead author of the study, said in a statement.

“It’s an incentivizing notion that we hope women will take to heart.”

Researchers at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai analyzed data collected from more than 400,000 American adults aged 27 to 61 from 1997 to 2019.

Women who exercised for at least 150 minutes a week were 24% less likely to die from any cause than women who had shorter workouts, according to the study.

Meanwhile, the study found that men who exercised for at least 150 minutes each week were only 15% less likely to die than men who did not.

Women were also found to be 36% less likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular condition if they exercised, while men who exercised only had their risk drop by 14%.

The study also found that men needed to work out for 300 minutes a week to see their biggest reduction in risk of death, while women saw the same benefit when exercising for just 140 minutes a week. Females also saw continued benefits as they continued to work out for up to 300 minutes.

Although the data found a correlation between exercise and risk for death, researchers can’t confirm that exercise directly caused the lowered risk and health benefits.

“I am hopeful that this pioneering research will motivate women who are not currently engaged in regular physical activity to understand that they are in a position to gain tremendous benefit for each increment of regular exercise they are able to invest in their longer-term health,” Professor Christine Albert said in a statement.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, men and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the US — in 2021, it was responsible for about one in five deaths, the CDC reported.

“If I said to a patient, ‘Hey, I have a medicine that you can take every day that will not only help to prevent heart disease, heart attacks, cancer, memory loss, dementia, but it will improve your mood,’ people would be going nuts for it,” Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health told CNN.

“And the truth is, it exists. It’s just not in a pill form – it’s sweat equity.”

Sleep has also been found to drastically improve cardiovascular health, especially in women.