Strong Muscles, Healthy Heart

by Carol Krucoff. Lifting weights for improved heart health In today's weight room, you're as likely to see a grandmother working her glutes as a quarterback working his quads because resistance exercise is now recognized as vital to building strong muscles and bones. Now the American Heart Association (AHA) says pumping iron is also good for that most important of muscles--the heart.In a new scientific advisory, the AHA says that for healthy adults—and some cardiac patients—a regular program of weight training not only increases muscle strength and endurance, it also improves function of the heart and lungs, enhances glucose metabolism, reduces coronary disease risk factors and boosts well-being."Over the last five or six years, there's been increasing scientific evidence that resistance training offers far more than just body beautiful," says physiologist Barry A. Franklin, co-author of the AHA advisory and director of the cardiac rehabilitation program at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. http://www.personalmd.com/news/n0217074612.shtml