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Women May Reap The Same Exercise Benefits As Men In Less Time

Hannah Frye
Author:
March 01, 2024
Hannah Frye
Assistant Beauty & Health Editor
By Hannah Frye
Assistant Beauty & Health Editor
Hannah Frye is the Assistant Beauty Editor at mindbodygreen. She has a B.S. in journalism and a minor in women’s, gender, and queer studies from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Hannah has written across lifestyle sections including health, wellness, sustainability, personal development, and more.
Image by Soren Egeberg / Stocksy
March 01, 2024

"How often should I work out?" is a question arguably every person asks when embarking on a fitness journey. While the CDC recommends moderate-intensity exercise for around 150 minutes a week1, there's much more nuance to consider.

The best cadence has to do with a plethora of factors from age to mobility and, yes, even sex. In fact, new research suggests women may be able to reap the same cardiovascular benefits of exercise as men but in less time, chalking up sex to be an essential factor to consider. To come, the new findings and what this means for your exercise goals.

Editor's note

When we refer to women in this article, we refer to those assigned female at birth (AFAB). The health-related correlations are exclusive to hormonal and chromosomal differences, not gender identity or expression.

Why women may need less exercise than men for similar benefits

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that women who exercised regularly had a 24% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 36% lower risk of cardiovascular events2 like heart attack and stroke compared to sedentary women. For men, those same stats were just 15% and 14%.

In this study, researchers reviewed two decades of data from 400,000 men and women in the United States, reaching a larger sample size than many previous studies done on exercise benefits by sex.

What's more, men reached their maximal survival benefit (read: longevity-specific benefits) from 300 minutes each week of moderate exercise (or 140 minutes of vigorous exercise). For women, similar benefit was achieved with 140 minutes of moderate exercise and just 57 minutes of vigorous exercise. 

Exercise can extend your life and protect your heart—and it doesn’t have to be a full-time commitment. 

But what's causing this gap? The researchers delved into why men typically show greater exercise capacity than women, citing factors like larger hearts, wider lung airways, and more muscle mass. 

Interestingly, even though women generally start with lower muscle strength, engaging in strength training leads to more significant relative improvements in strength, a crucial factor for predicting mortality, they add.

The study also notes age-related nuances, with the benefits for women seeming to take a dip in older age, possibly around the menopausal transition.

At the end of the day, there's an important underlying message that shouldn't get lost here: Exercise can extend your life and protect your heart—and it doesn't have to be a full-time commitment. Hopefully, this takeaway can make starting or progressing a fitness routine a little less intimidating.

Still, if your goal is to build muscle, train for an event, or do anything beyond keeping up with movement for longevity's sake, it's worth building out a more customized plan. And if you're someone who enjoys the mental health benefits of a long workout, this isn't to say you need to cut them short. Everyone's different, and it's about finding the right cadence for you. When it comes to optimizing health, personalization is the secret sauce to success.

Summary

Spending 57-140 minutes exercising each week (which comes out to about 8 to 20 minutes each day) seems to be enough to bring about significant health improvements for women.

The takeaway

A new study found that women who exercised regularly had a more significant reduction in all-cause mortality and risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke than men who completed the same amount of exercise. While these findings support the utility of a tighter workout schedule, your ideal cadence will depend on many other factors besides sex, too. Here, even more on finding your ideal workout plan.

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