Fitness

The five best exercises for heart health

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2024

You can probably feel that you’re working your heart when you walk up a hill. Your heart beats faster and you might feel out of breath, but you might not appreciate the full extent of the benefits.

Any exercise that works your heart and lungs will strengthen the heart muscle, helping to prevent high blood pressure and the “bad” kind of cholesterol that can clog up our arteries. All of this is great for your health span and will reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke. While any kind of cardio, whether it’s walking or running, is good for heart health for maximum heart benefits, you need to mix up your training sessions.

First, you’ll need some longer, low- to medium-intensity training sessions (known as “zone two” training), ideally three a week. Second, you need a couple of medium- to high-intensity interval training (also known as HIIT) sessions each week. Finally, sports training, or anything that mimics it, is also great for developing cardiovascular fitness and heart strength. So how do you go about working these into your training?

Walking

While walking in general is good for you, to truly boost your heart health your pace needs to be quick, or the terrain will need to be highly varied so that you are working hard enough. You’ll need to reach around 65-70 per cent of your maximum heart rate and for most people this is not your average stroll, it means walking at a pace with some real intent and it should feel as though you can have a conversation with someone but it’s also slightly strained. The heart and lungs thrive on this, but they need 40 minutes-plus to make it truly effective and the same is true when it comes to fat burning.

Aim for three days per week of at least 40 mins, at a brisk pace.

Running

For most people running is a real effort. Even when you reach a good level your heart rate will still be higher than walking at the fastest pace, so for the majority this is not your go-to exercise for longer training sessions. Instead, either opt for a short 20- to 40-minute run to increase your heart strength, or switch between short bouts of 30-90 seconds at a fast pace and 90 seconds’ recovery and make this one of your interval sessions.

Aim for two sessions a week of 20-40 mins, either at a steady pace or interval training, switching between a fast and slow pace.

Swimming

The effect of the cool water and the pressure of water on your body makes your heart rate slightly slower when swimming than when exercising on dry land. This makes swimming very effective as a long, constant-pace session as you will have a low to medium heart rate for that 30-40-minute duration with no breaks. However, this only holds if you’re a strong swimmer. If your swimming is not so good but you want to use it in your training it’s a perfect interval session. Good swimmers can also use it for interval sessions, as it’s frankly a tough full body exercise.

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Fitness

What Happens to Your Body When You Take Ozempic Without Exercising

Published

2 hours ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

What Happens to Your Body When You Take Ozempic Without Exercising

(Photo: Oleg Breslavtsev / Getty)

Published March 25, 2026 12:36PM

Is exercise obsolete in the age of Ozempic? Now that the initial hype has settled down, nobody makes that claim with a straight face. In fact, one of the big fears among people taking GLP-1 agonists (the class of drug to which Ozempic belongs) is that they’ll lose too much muscle along with all the fat, leaving them weaker and less healthy. But at this point, there’s very little data on what happens when you combine these drugs with an exercise routine (or lack thereof).

A newly published study in the journal Sports Medicine steps into this gap. It’s a secondary analysis of data from a previously published study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, funded in part by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (Novo Nordisk is the company that makes Ozempic). The study follows volunteers taking another Novo Nordisk GLP-1 agonist called liraglutide (sold under the brand names Victoza and Saxenda) for an entire year, with or without the addition of a regular exercise program. The results show that without exercise, both health and physical function suffer—and it’s not just about muscle.

What the GLP-1 Study Found

The study involved 193 adults between the ages of 18 and 65. It’s a little unusual in that they started by following an eight-week very-low-calorie diet before starting either exercise or the GLP-1 drug. That’s because the original study was designed to look at ways of maintaining weight loss. Everyone included in the study lost at least 5 percent of their starting weight, which resulted in an average weight loss of 29 pounds. Then, for the following year, they either exercised, took the GLP-1 drug, did both, or did neither. (Those who didn’t get the drug got a placebo.)

The exercise program involved two group exercise classes per week, including 30 minutes of intervals on an exercise bike, then 15 minutes of circuit training (step-ups, boxing, squats, kettlebells, and so on). The subjects were also asked to do two additional workouts on their own; the details were up to them, but most chose running, cycling, brisk walking, or circuits. Adherence was decent: they averaged 2.65 workouts a week and met standard public health guidelines for physical activity.

The first outcome of interest (as reported in the original analysis) is weight. Here’s the trajectory of the four groups:

Graphing showing that the combination of exercise and a GLP-1 drug was most effective for maintaining weight loss. — The combination of exercise and a GLP-1 drug was most effective for maintaining weight loss. (Photo: Sports Medicine)

Doing nothing was the worst option. Exercising and taking a GLP-1 drug was the best option. If you had to choose one or the other, the drug looks marginally better, though the difference wasn’t statistically significant.

Does Fitness or Fatness Matter More?

There’s a longstanding debate about the relative health effects of being overweight versus being aerobically unfit. The two often go together, so they get conflated—but they’re not the same thing. The general trend of evidence, according to the Danish research team, is that it’s better for health and longevity to be fit and overweight than unfit and normal weight. This distinction is important in the context of GLP-1 drugs, because if they help you lose weight without gaining fitness, then the health benefits may be less than you’d expect.

Figuring out how to measure fitness in this context isn’t straightforward. When you lose weight, you’ll generally lose some muscle mass in addition to fat loss. Both strength and aerobic fitness (as measured by VO2 max) are roughly proportional to muscle mass, so your absolute fitness might appear to decline when you lose a lot of weight. But if you lose less strength or fitness in proportion to your overall weight loss, you’ll still end up with greater functional fitness: you’ll have an easier time getting up from a chair, be able to walk for longer, and so on.

One of the simple functional tests the Danish study included was a stair-climb test: climb up and down an 11-step stairway twice, as fast as possible. Here’s what those results looked like:

Graphing showing that the key to climbing stairs more quickly was exercise, with or without a GLP-1 drug. — The key to climbing stairs more quickly was exercise, with or without a GLP-1 drug. (Photo: Sports Medicine)

It’s clear here that the exercise program helped people speed up and down the stairs more quickly, whether or not they were taking the GLP-1 drug. Just taking the drug without exercising didn’t have any benefit.

There are a whole bunch of other fitness measures in the paper: VO2 max tests, leg strength tests, body composition tests to measure muscle mass in the arms and legs. The fitness outcomes can be expressed in absolute terms, or relative to total body weight, or relative to muscle mass. No matter how you express it, the overall pattern, with a few minor exceptions, is the same as the graph above: exercise makes you fitter, simply taking the drug doesn’t.

(An example of a minor exception: the drug alone was enough to improve relative leg strength, i.e. leg strength divided by total body weight, because weight decreased more than strength. But adding exercise worked even better.)

This conclusion—that the best way to get fitter is to exercise—is not exactly surprising. But I think it has been overlooked in discussions about GLP-1 drugs. I’ve certainly seen lots of chatter about the dangers of muscle loss with Ozempic, and the need to pound protein and lift weights. That’s a legitimate concern, but aerobic fitness is an even better predictor of longevity and marker of general health. GLP-1 drugs have remarkable properties, but they haven’t made exercise obsolete.

For more Sweat Science, sign up for the email newsletter and check out my new book The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map.

Fitness

Stay on Top of Your Workouts and Health With the Best Fitness Trackers of 2026

Published

14 hours ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

Stay on Top of Your Workouts and Health With the Best Fitness Trackers of 2026

Format: Would you prefer wearing a ring or a wrist-based device? If you want something understated that you can wear all the time and don’t mind not having a screen to glance at, then a ring would be ideal. If having a watch on your wrist is comfortable, then a smartwatch or wrist-based tracker may be the right choice.

Compatibility: If you’re an Apple user, ensure your fitness tracker is compatible with iOS. The same goes if you’re an Android user.

Storage capacity: For those who don’t want their fitness tracker to be dependent on their phone, look at a device with its own storage capacity.

Special features: Before purchasing a fitness tracker, consider the health metrics that are important to you for your favorite workouts. If you’d like your tracker to do more than monitor your fitness, you’ll be better off with a smartwatch like the Pixel Watch 4 or Apple Watch SE 3.

Wi-Fi or Bluetooth: If you’re the type of person who likes to leave their phone behind when working out but still needs internet access, ensure your fitness tracker has Wi-Fi.

GPS? For those who run, hike or walk and want to keep track of metrics like distance and pace without their phone, choose a fitness tracker that has built-in GPS.

Screen size: Once you decide you want a fitness tracker with a screen, make sure it fits your personal preferences. A smaller screen may be better if you prefer for it to be less obvious that you’re wearing a fitness tracker on your wrist.

Battery life: How often do you want to be charging your fitness tracker? If frequently charging your devices is a pet peeve, ensure your fitness tracker of choice has a long battery life, especially for your preferred workouts.

Water resistance: Individuals who work out by swimming or those who enjoy taking a dip in the pool after exercising will want a fitness tracker that is water-resistant. Confirm your device is rated for the depth you plan to swim at.

Subscription cost: It’s common for fitness trackers to come with the added cost of a subscription, particularly if you want to access all available features or require extra features for your workout or fitness goals. To guarantee that a fitness tracker is in your budget, check not only the price of the device, but also how much your subscription of choice will run you over the course of a year.

Fitness

Exercise First Thing in the Morning for Better Heart Health, Study Suggests

Published

1 day ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Exercise First Thing in the Morning for Better Heart Health, Study Suggests

If you typically work out in the morning, a new study suggests you may have a lower risk for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other contributors to heart disease compared with people who exercise later in the day.

“This study suggests that when you exercise may matter, not just how much you exercise,” says senior study author Prashant Rao, MBBS, a sports cardiologist and physician-scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston.

The research, which will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session later this month, relied on minute-level heart rate data from nearly 15,000 adults. Dr. Rao says this allowed his team to capture long-term, real-world exercise data with much more detail and accuracy.

Early Morning Workouts Are Linked to Better Cardiometabolic Health

The study analyzed health records and Fitbit heart rate data collected over a year. Researchers identified periods when participants had an elevated heart rate for 15 minutes or more to track physical activity. Then they grouped participants into categories based on the time of day exercise occurred.

Researchers compared these timing groups with health data including rates of high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, and other cardiovascular health problems. They adjusted the findings to account for differences in age, sex, income level, total activity level, sleep, alcohol use, and smoking status.

The results showed that compared with adults who exercised later in the day, those who worked out in the morning were:

These risk reductions were independent of how much exercise people actually got. Adults who exercised between 7 and 8 a.m. had the lowest odds of coronary artery disease.

Aubrey Grant, MD, a sports cardiologist at MedStar Health in Washington, D.C., who wasn’t involved with the research, says the results suggest that “timing may be a previously underappreciated lever in cardiometabolic risk reduction.”

He adds that wearable technology is giving scientists more granular exercise data, which “opens a more nuanced conversation about how physical activity interacts with the body’s daily rhythms.”

Exercise Timing Is a ‘New Frontier’

A main limitation of the research is that it’s an observational study, “so we can’t establish causality,” Rao says. Because participants weren’t randomized to exercise at different times, the results only show a link, not that earlier exercise directly leads to the observed health benefits.

“While we did our best to adjust for confounders [factors that could muddy the results], timing may still reflect differences in work schedules, socioeconomic factors, or lifestyle patterns that aren’t potentially fully captured in our analyses,” he says.

The link between exercise timing and health is a “new frontier in exercise science,” says Dr. Grant. For decades, research has focused on “how much and how hard” people worked out — variables that still matter, he says.

But more data on timing is starting to appear. Just this January, for instance, another published study found that older adults who identified as “night people” had worse cardiovascular health compared with adults who said they were “morning people.”

Why Exercise Timing May Lower Cardiometabolic Risk

“The honest answer is that we do not fully know yet” why this link is appearing, Grant says.

“Morning exercise may align better with circadian physiology,” or how bodily functions naturally correspond to the time of day, he says. “Cortisol peaks early in the day and can prime the body for physical exertion, potentially enhancing metabolic efficiency,” Grant adds.

Exercise is also a natural stimulant. When you work out early, it revs up your bodily systems and energizes you for the day, says Andrew Freeman, MD, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. Dr. Freeman was not involved with the new study.

People who work out earlier may also have healthier lifestyle habits, overall, says Alex Rothstein, EdD, an assistant professor of exercise science at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury.

“If you work out earlier in the day, you tend to have fewer excuses to not work out,” and you may exercise more consistently, says Dr. Rothstein, who was not involved with the new research.

Should You Start Exercising in the Morning?

Freeman recommends getting 30 minutes a day of “breathless physical activity,” including a combination of cardio and strength training. But if you prefer to work out in the afternoons or have responsibilities preventing you from exercising in the morning, don’t worry.

“It does not mean people should feel guilty about evening workouts,” Grant says. “It means that when we counsel patients on optimizing their health, exercise timing is now a legitimate part of that conversation, alongside sleep, nutrition, and stress management.”

If you have flexibility, though, Rothstein suggests exercising in the morning, as it’s less likely that something will interfere with your workout later on, and it may offer extra heart health benefits.

“The most important message is still: Exercise consistently, regardless of timing,” Rao says. However, “Timing may represent a simple, low-cost way to potentially optimize health.”