Women can exercise less often than men and have greater cardiovascular benefits, according to a new study from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the results of which are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 412,000 US adults included in the National Health Interview Survey database. In the period 1997-2019, participants (55% women) provided information on leisure-time physical activity. The researchers then looked at the results by gender and by frequency, duration, intensity and type of physical activity.

The research team studied moderate-to-vigorous aerobic physical activity, such as brisk walking or cycling, and found that men achieved the greatest survival benefit by doing this level of exercise for about five hours a week, while women achieved the same amount benefits exercised just under two and a half hours per week.

Similarly, when it came to muscle-strengthening activity, such as weight lifting or core exercises, men reached the maximum benefit by doing three sessions a week, and women got the same benefit from about one session a week.

“For all adults engaged in any regular physical activity, mortality risk was predictably lower compared to being inactive. What’s interesting, though, is that the risk of mortality was reduced by 24% in women and by 15% in men,” says Susan Cheng, director of the Institute for Research in Healthy Aging in the Smidt Heart Institute’s Division of Cardiology and lead author of the study. .