The benefits of exercise are endless: better sleep and mental health, plus a longer life. And women only need to do about half as much as men to get the same gains, suggests a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Martha Gulati is co-author of the study and director of preventive cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The study examined male and female physical activity data from 1997 to 2017, Gulati tells KCRW. It found that compared to inactive people, men had a 15% reduction in dying from any cause. Active women, however, lowered their risk by 24%.
She adds that men had the maximum health benefits if they logged 300 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous activity, while women needed just 140 minutes.
Why don’t women have to log just as much? Gulati says it's still unclear, but on average, women have less muscle and lean body mass than men, which suggests that they just need to do less compared to the opposite gender.
“We know women's muscles have a different muscle fiber concentration compared with men. And so there may be something about exercise that translates differently physiologically to women compared with men, and ultimately results in an overall health benefit,” she says. “Additionally, we have some physiology work showing that women have greater blood flow to the muscles. So capillaries, the small blood vessels, that density of vessels is greater in women. So again, maybe a small amount of activity goes further in women compared with men in terms of vascular benefits and ultimately longevity.”
There is another aspect of the gender breakdown that the study didn’t explore, but could account for some of the difference, Gulati says. She points to physical activity performed during leisure time and daily life, such as cleaning, gardening, and taking care of kids.
“What we need is more studies to replicate our findings. … We could use something like an accelerometer, which shows all activity, not just intentional exercise, but other things that keep our body moving, and how much does that contribute? … Women tend to play many different roles in their family's lives, and even at their work, they might be doing different things. … The activity that we do that isn't counted as exercise, but just keeps our bodies moving — perhaps that is contributing to some of the findings that we had here.”