Health
Women get more benefit from exercise than men, study finds: ‘More to gain’
When it comes to reaping the rewards of exercise, women may have a leg up.
A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that females may get more benefits than men when doing the same amount of physical activity.
Researchers from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles analyzed the physical activity data of 412,413 U.S. adults.
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The participants all responded to the National Health Interview Survey database between 1997 and 2019, providing details about the frequency, duration, intensity and type of physical activity, according to a press release from the hospital.
In terms of cardiovascular exercise, the researchers found that men gained their maximum “survival benefit” from doing “moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity” for about five hours per week.
Females may get more benefits than men when doing the same amount of physical activity, says a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (iStock)
For women, that same level of benefit was achieved after just 2½ hours of that exercise intensity per week.
Women continued to gain more benefits after that time, however.
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Examples of “moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity” include brisk walking or cycling, the study detailed.
For strength training exercises, men hit their maximum benefit from three weekly sessions, while women achieved the same outcome with just one session per week.
“We found not only that progressively greater amounts of physical activity reduced mortality risk, but also that the amount of regular exercise needed to achieve the same degree of risk reduction was different in females versus males,” said senior author Susan Cheng, M.D., MPH, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute.
For strength training exercises, men hit their maximum benefit from three weekly sessions, while women achieved the same outcome with just one session per week. (iStock)
“In effect, women did not need to exercise for as much time as men to achieve the same benefit,” she told Fox News Digital.
“Put another way, for a given amount of time and effort put into exercise, women had more to gain than men.”
Co-lead author Martha Gulati, M.D., director of preventive cardiology in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, noted in the release that women have historically and statistically lagged behind men in engaging in exercise.
“Exercise doesn’t discriminate, no matter your gender. You have to put the work in to be healthy.”
“The beauty of this study is learning that women can get more out of each minute of moderate to vigorous activity than men do,” Gulati said.
“It’s an incentivizing notion that we hope women will take to heart.”
While mortality risk decreased for all adults, it was reduced by 24% for women and 15% for men, according to Cheng.
In terms of cardiovascular exercise, the researchers found that men gained their maximum “survival benefit” from doing “moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity” for about five hours per week. (iStock)
“We hope that the results of this study will help to motivate females who are not currently engaged in regular physical activity to understand that they are in a position to gain substantial benefit, technically even more than their counterpart males, for each increment of regular exercise they are able to invest in their longer-term health,” Cheng told Fox News Digital.
“Part of what makes females and males different is that when it comes to living longer and living healthier, different types of investments are linked to different types of gains.”
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The researchers hope that these findings will help women who may feel too busy or too intimidated to take on a new exercise routine without feeling that they have to compare themselves to men.
“They can be on their own path to success and every bit of progress will count,” Cheng said.
While mortality risk decreased for all adults, it was reduced by 24% for women and 15% for men, according to the researchers. (iStock)
Chris Pruitt, a certified personal trainer with the American Sports and Fitness Association (ASFA) who is based in Maryland, was not involved in the study but said it aligns with observations that women and men may require different approaches to achieve similar health outcomes.
“In my experience, individual responses to exercise can vary widely, and it’s fascinating to see this backed by research,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Biological differences between genders, including hormonal variations and body composition, likely play a significant role in these observed differences,” Pruitt went on.
“Women may use energy or recover from exercise differently than men, leading to these distinct benefits from less exercise.”
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This research illustrates the importance of personalized fitness programs that consider gender differences, he said.
“It suggests that fitness advice should be more tailored to the individual’s goals and abilities and their gender-specific physiological responses to exercise.”
Potential limitations
The chief limitation of the study is that all physical activity data was self-reported — which creates the possibility for inaccuracies.
“In the future, direct measures of exercise could be analyzed using wearable devices,” Cheng said.
The researchers hope that these findings will help women who may feel too busy or too intimidated to take on a new exercise routine without feeling that they have to compare themselves to men. (iStock)
“A very large study of people whose exercise is digitally tracked and measured could one day give us even more detailed information on differences not only between women and men, but also within women and within men.”
“There is still a lot more work we need to do to figure out how to best tailor exercise recommendations to each individual person to best meet their individual needs.”
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Josh York, founder and CEO of the New York-based fitness training company GYMGUYZ, reviewed the study and said he does not think the findings should influence people’s fitness routines.
“There are a lot of things you need for good health and fitness, including proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There are a lot of different variables at play when it comes to assessing a person’s exercise needs and requirements.”
As each individual is different, a fitness expert said that “sweeping assumptions” about each gender’s exercise needs and outcomes don’t take into account variations in individuals’ circumstances. (iStock)
While the study looked at maximal survival benefit, York noted that some people might be motivated by other goals, such as looking a certain way.
“At the end of the day, exercise doesn’t discriminate, no matter your gender,” he said. “You have to put the work in to be healthy. If someone puts more work in, has a healthy diet and lives in a safe environment, they are going to get better results, because physical health is influenced by your habits and mental well-being.”
As each individual is different, York said that “sweeping assumptions” about each gender’s exercise needs and outcomes don’t take into account variations in individuals’ circumstances.
“I don’t think people should use this as guidance to reduce their exercise regimens,” he said.
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A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart. Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026. (SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion… My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
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She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform. He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006. He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life. (SWNS)
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said. After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions. She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son. (SWNS)
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.”
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Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.” (iStock)
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.’”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found. (iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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