This article originally appeared on Oxygen
Given the many health benefits of getting adequate Z, we’re always on the lookout for strategies to help us sleep better at night, and a soon-to-be-published study on the sleep benefits of endurance training against aerobic training delved into details you’ll want to take note of.
“Aerobic activity is often recommended to improve sleep, but very little is known about the effects of resistance exercise versus aerobic exercise on sleep,” said study author Angelique Brellenthin, Ph.D., assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, said in a Press release. “…Our study is one of the largest and longest exercise trials in a general adult population to directly compare the effects of different types of exercise on multiple sleep parameters.”
The American Heart Association presents evidence that one of the two types of training can improve sleep better than the other. The researchers recruited 386 adults considered overweight and divided them into four groups: an inactive group, a group that participated in aerobic training, a group that participated in resistance training, and a fourth group in a combined regimen.
the aerobic exercise group did exercises in the treadmill, upright or recumbent bikes or the elliptical. the resistance exercise group did workouts with sets and reps on 12 resistance machines like the leg presschest press, lat pulldown, leg curl, leg extension, bicep curlsshoulder press etc combined group he did workouts like 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity plus two sets of 8-16 repetitions of resistance machine work.
The study found that resistance training participants began sleeping an average of 40 minutes longer than usualthe aerobic exercise group slept 23 minutes longer and the combined exercise group slept about 17 minutes longer.
As well, sleep efficiency increased in the resistance training group and the combined exercise group, but not the aerobic exercise group. Based on these findings, the researchers conclude that resistance training may be a new way to not only improve cardiovascular health, but also help you sleep better.
“While both aerobic and resistance exercise are important for overall health, our results suggest that resistance exercise may be superior when it comes to improving ZZZ at night,” Brellenthin said. “Resistance exercise significantly improved sleep duration and sleep efficiency, which are critical indicators of sleep quality that reflect how well a person falls asleep and stays asleep through the night.”
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