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Exercise is important for heart health, but unlike statins or dietary changes, it can lower LDL while raising HDL levels.Doctors are recommending strength training two to three times a week.A mix of strength training and cardio can yield better lipid numbers. If you\u2019re working out consistently, you may see improvements in four to eight weeks.<\/p>\n
WHEN YOU SEE your doctor, they may advise movement to improve your cholesterol numbers. But what kind of exercise, exactly, should you be doing? For years, experts have pointed to cardio as the best exercise for controlling cholesterol. The science has since changed.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, \u201cyou need both aerobic and resistance types as they complement each other,” says Neil Smart, PhD<\/a>, professor in exercise and sports science at Australia’s University of New England. He knows: he\u2019s the author of a review of studies published in Sports Medicine<\/a> that clarified that each type of exercise acted on cholesterol in slightly different ways.<\/p>\n Exercise lowered participants’ LDL (“bad” cholesterol) by about 7 milligrams per deciliter (mg\/dL), reduced artery-clogging very low-density lipoprotein (vLDL) by about 4 mg\/dL, and took down triglycerides by about 8 mg\/dL on average. Working out increased HDL (“good” cholesterol) by about 2 mg\/dl.<\/p>\n Those might not seem like huge takedowns (or lifts, when it comes to HDL, which you want to be high). But here\u2019s the thing: In addition to all of the aspects of cholesterol that exercise affects, it can do what drugs and diet can\u2019t: It can raise HDL<\/a>, he explains. That\u2019s important, because that\u2019s the marker that usually needs extra help. Virtually everyone with high levels of harmful lipids has low HDL, says Dr. Smart. While low HDL is half the problem with their cholesterol, it’s comparatively harder to fix with medications like statins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Below, MH spoke to experts like Dr. Smart to create a science-backed guide on how each type of exercise impacts cholesterol.<\/p>\n How Cardio Affects Cholesterol<\/p>\n CARDIO\u2014AEROBIC ACTIVITIES like walking, running, swimming, and cycling\u2014not only reduces total cholesterol, LDL, vLDL and triglycerides, it starts working on your blood fats right away. These workouts burn triglycerides in your bloodstream as fuel.<\/p>\n Over time, consistent training acts on both LDL and HDL. Here\u2019s how it works:<\/p>\n To Take Down Your LDL<\/p>\n Regular aerobic activity alters LDL cholesterol so that it clears out of your blood more easily and causes less harm while it’s there. Specifically, cardio:<\/p>\n \u2022 Helps break down fats in your blood by boosting enzymes (including one called lipoprotein lipase) that do that kind of work.<\/p>\n \u2022 Gets LDL out before it turns nasty. Cardio turns up your cells’ LDL receptors so you clear more LDL from your blood before it has time to oxidize and damage the lining of your blood vessels. “Oxidized LDL cholesterol is the kind that’s dangerous,” says Sara K. Rosenkranz, PhD<\/a>, professor of kinesiology and nutrition sciences at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.<\/p>\n \u2022 Reshapes LDL particles so they\u2019re less dangerous. If you have high LDL, the particles themselves are small and dense, making them more likely to settle into artery walls, explains George A. Kelley, DA, FACSM<\/a>, research professor in the school of public and population health at Boise State University. “Exercise seems to make them more puffy, less dense, and those have been shown to contribute less to atherosclerosis.”<\/p>\n To Raise Your HDL<\/p>\n Aerobic exercise can increase HDL by about 10 percent and improve its function, says William E. Kraus, MD<\/a>, professor of medicine at Duke University. Cardio workouts:<\/p>\n \u2022 Reduce HDL particle size. Exercise helps your body produce small HDL particles, which are especially good at removing cholesterol before it has time to form dangerous plaques in your blood vessels, says Dr. Kraus.<\/p>\n \u2022 Improve HDL’s ability to remove bad cholesterol from your blood. Docs call this process cholesterol efflux. “At high intensities or in high amounts, exercise seems to increase our ability to efflux, so it makes your HDL function better,” says Mark Sarzynski, PhD<\/a>, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina. In other words, exercise gets blood pumping through your blood vessels, which might stimulate more HDL to get to work.<\/p>\n How Weight Training Affects Cholesterol<\/p>\n RESISTANCE TRAINING CAN raise HDL levels about as much as aerobic exercise does, and the two work better together, according to the Sports Medicine study review. Dr. Smart says a small number of studies also suggest that resistance training can improve LDL, vLDL, and triglycerides, but more data is needed.<\/p>\n Scientists are still working to explain how resistance training raises HDL. However, Dr. Smart has a theory. Consider that HDL is a protein-rich type of cholesterol. When you lift weights, you break down protein-rich muscle fibers and then repair them during rest. “It makes sense that HDL would respond better to a protein-building activity like resistance training,” he adds.<\/p>\n Research<\/a> also suggests that lifting at low or moderate intensities (about 50 to 75 percent of your one-rep max) might improve HDL levels by increasing the activity of enzymes that help HDL shuttle artery-clogging lipids to your liver for disposal.<\/p>\n How Much Do You Need to Work Out to Change Your Cholesterol?<\/p>\n TO CHANGE YOUR cholesterol, you need to burn about 1,000 to 1,200 calories during exercise (or about 11.25 Metabolic Equivalent<\/a> Hours or MET Hours) per week, says Dr. Smart. There are many ways to get there; you can do longer sessions at a lower intensity or shorter ones at a higher intensity.<\/p>\n Say, for example, you weigh 180 pounds and like walking as your cardio<\/a>. Take five weekly 50-minute walks at a pace of 2.5 miles per hour to hit your goal. If you move more slowly, walk longer. If you pick up the pace, you can cut the time.<\/p>\n Note that more time does seem to equal extra benefits. Dr. Smart’s research showed that adding just a minute to each workout session could raise HDL by 2 mg\/dL over an average of 12 weeks.<\/p>\n Adding more sessions helps, too: Each extra weekly cardio workout reduced triglycerides by about 8 mg\/dL. There’s probably a plateau at some point, but we don’t know how many weeks it will take, says Dr. Smart. Most studies lasted about 12 weeks, with a range of 3 to 52 weeks.<\/p>\n For resistance training to help with cholesterol, lift two to three times per week. Do one to three sets of eight to 10 exercises at about 40 to 80 percent of your one-rep max for the big muscle groups: arms, legs, chest, and back, suggests Dr. Kelley. Rest for two to three minutes between each exercise and between each set.<\/p>\n The more you exercise, the more results you’ll see. If you’re consistent, Dr. Kelley says you might improve your lipid numbers in four to eight weeks.<\/p>\n Exercise Is Important\u2014And So Is Food<\/p>\n “EXERCISE’S EFFECT ON LDL cholesterol is relatively small as compared to some of our other established treatments, medications, and diet changes, but it’s still meaningful,” says Dr. Rosenkranz. She adds that regular aerobic activity can drop your LDL by 5 to 10 percent. Cardio and weights raise HDL about the same amount.<\/p>\n Of course, when you\u2019re looking to change your cholesterol, you can\u2019t stop there. The old rule still applies: You can’t outrun a bad diet<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Even if you’re exercising an hour a day, there are still 23 hours of the day that really matter for metabolizing things, including fats and lipids,” says Dr. Sarzynski. Combining exercise and diet changes can help you reduce your LDL by 20 to 30 percent, says Dr. Rosenkranz. If you eat better and move more<\/a>, you might lose body fat, which can also slash high cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n Exercise and diet also improve insulin sensitivity and chronic inflammation, reducing your risk of arterial damage from elevated cholesterol, says Dr. Kelley.<\/p>\n Of course, cholesterol isn’t the only endpoint in terms of how cardio and weights help your cardiovascular health. “Exercise is going to improve a lot of other things as well, such as blood pressure, blood glucose control, body weight, and body composition,” says Dr. Smart. That adds up to a reduction in your overall risk of heart disease, and that\u2019s the whole point.<\/p>\n
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