{"id":189802,"date":"2022-06-16T09:29:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T09:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=189802"},"modified":"2022-06-16T09:29:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T09:29:55","slug":"is-strength-training-better-for-sleep-than-aerobic-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/06\/16\/is-strength-training-better-for-sleep-than-aerobic-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Strength Training Better for Sleep Than Aerobic Exercise?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lifting weights and cycling are both great ways to improve health. Which one should you choose if you\u2019re struggling to sleep well? Researchers from Iowa State University decided to investigate. This is what they found.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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We need to better understand the effects of exercise on sleep<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We know that not getting enough good sleep is bad for us and science confirms this. Insufficient and poor-quality sleep increases risk for high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, atherosclerosis, weight gain, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Exercise is often recommended to help with sleep. But exercise is a broad term.<\/p>\n

“It is increasingly recognized that getting enough sleep, particularly high-quality sleep,<\/a> is important for health including cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, more than a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis. Aerobic activity is often recommended to improve sleep,<\/a> yet very little is known about the effects of resistance exercise versus aerobic exercise on sleep. Our study is one of the largest and longest exercise trials in a general adult population to directly compare the effects of different types of exercise on multiple sleep parameters,” said study author Angelique Brellenthin, Ph.D., assistant professor at Iowa State University.<\/p>\n

\"Exercise\"<\/a>
Lifting weight or cycling? Which one should you choose if you\u2019re struggling to sleep well?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cycling, weight lifting, or both?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To understand the effects of resistance and aerobic exercise, researchers included 386 adults.<\/a> They selected those who were overweight, inactive, and had elevated blood pressure. For 12 months, they were divided into four groups based on the type of exercise. They participated in supervised 60-minute sessions 3x per week.<\/p>\n