Resistance Training Went With Lower Heart Attack Risk in Women

CATEGORY: WOMEN’S HEALTH

Resistance training showed no link to lower stroke risk in women. The signal sat in the heart instead: about 20% lower risk of a major cardiovascular event among women doing at least two hours a week, and about 44% lower risk of heart attack.¹ The figures come from 117,025 U.S. women in two long-running studies of nurses. Resistance training here means muscle-strengthening work, whether that is weights, bands or machines.

Fourteen and a Half Years of Repeated Questionnaires

The women belonged to the Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II. They reported how much resistance training they did, and the question came round again every four years, so what was captured was a long-term habit rather than a single moment. Over an average of about 14.5 years the team logged 5,459 major cardiovascular events, a category covering heart attack, stroke and major heart procedures, then examined how those lined up with training habits.

Lowest Risk Came With Aerobic Activity and Less Television

Women who combined resistance training with recommended aerobic activity and limited time in front of the television had the lowest risk in the study, about 40% lower. That is more than aerobic activity alone appeared to deliver.¹ Why muscle might matter is no mystery. Active muscle helps the body manage blood sugar and blood fats and supports healthier blood pressure, all of which ease the long-term load on the heart and arteries. Resistance training also tends to hold on to muscle as women age, and more muscle goes with steadier metabolism, the body’s process for turning food into energy.

Self-Reported Habits, and Two Other Datasets

This study watched women rather than assigning them anything, so it cannot establish that resistance training directly prevents heart disease. Activity was self-reported. Women who strength-train may share other heart-friendly habits that do some of the work. A pooled analysis of 16 long-term studies put muscle-strengthening activity at roughly 17% fewer cardiovascular disease events, with benefit largest around 30 to 60 minutes a week and no clear added gain above that.² A separate U.S. study of more than 400,000 adults linked strength training to 30% lower risk of dying from heart and blood-vessel disease in women, against 11% in men.³ The direction holds across all three. The peak may arrive sooner than two hours.

Key Takeaways

• Women doing at least two hours of resistance training a week had about 20% lower risk of major cardiovascular disease and about 44% lower risk of heart attack, while stroke risk showed no link at all.
• Activity was self-reported and nobody was assigned to train, so the finding is a link rather than a demonstrated cause; the lowest risk of all appeared in women who also met aerobic activity recommendations and watched less television.

References

1. Zhang T, Zhang Y, Lee DH, et al. Resistance Training, Aerobic Activity, Television Viewing, and Risk of Major Cardiovascular Events in U.S. Women. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2026.04.036. link
2. Momma H, Kawakami R, Honda T, et al. Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2022;56(13):755–763. link.
3. Ji H, Gulati M, Huang TY, et al. Sex differences in association of physical activity with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2024;83(8):783–793. link.