How Strength Training Improves Heart and Lung Function and Circulation

If I asked you to pick an activity that would improve your heart and lung health, you’d probably decide to go for a run, ride, swim, or row. Yet while the cardiovascular benefits of such endurance pursuits are undeniable and well documented, did you know that regular resistance training can also give you a healthier heart, lower your blood pressure, and improve your lung capacity? We’ll dive into these benefits and more in this article.

1) A Stronger, Healthier Heart

Legendary Olympic lifting coach István Javorek, creator of one of the most widely used complexes in this discipline, likes to tell the before and after story of a young athlete who came to him looking to get stronger. When he first showed up in the weight room, Javorek said that this scrawny kid’s heart rate sounded like the soft, rapid fluttering of a butterfly’s wings. After a few months of learning the snatch and clean and jerk, this had been replaced by a big, powerful pulse that sounded more like cannon fire.

This is an anecdotal account, but there’s plenty of research to back up what Javorek is saying about the link between strength training and heart health. A review by two cardiologists from Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago noted that resistance training, “has enhancing effects on cardiovascular function, overall metabolic state of the body and general quality of life¹.” While endurance work usually gets the glory when it comes to cardiovascular adaptation, the authors noted that resistance training reduces resting heart rate, increases blood flow, and increases the size of the left heart ventricle. Another study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that a single strength training workout reduced participants’ blood pressure for up to 24 hours².

2) Increased Lung Capacity

The other main component of the cardiovascular system – your lungs – can be developed through aerobic exercise (no shocks here). Yet research suggests that strength training can also make a positive impact. The author of a paper released via Sports concluded that “compared to endurance-trained participants, [those who focused on resistance training] generated greater maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximal expiratory pressure (MEP).³” There was a correlation between these measurements and increased VO2 max, and the strength athletes had stronger respiratory muscles (the ones that drive your inhalation and exhalation). The study also discovered that the more powerful an athlete is in the squat and deadlift, the stronger their respiratory muscles are. This could be because of the need to use these structures to brace during compound strength movements, as well as to take deep breaths during each set.

A study of powerlifters published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology echoed these findings, concluding that participants who lifted weights several times a week had greater ventilatory muscle strength and thicker diaphragms than most athletes⁴. This suggests that when you train your body to exert greater force, your cardiovascular system adapts to meet these demands. Another experiment conducted by Portuguese exercise scientists compared the maximum oxygen uptake of athletes when they rode hard in cycling intervals versus when they did squats and bench presses. The results showed that while VO2 max was higher during the endurance portion of the workout for the first 20 minutes, after this it was comparable. The authors concluded that “the load/intensity, and not the material/equipment used for the execution of an exercise, are variables that best influence oxygen uptake⁵.” In other words, you can tailor a strength-focused session to emphasize your heart and lung function.

3) Improved Circulation

The exercise physiology community has known for a long time that endurance training prompts your body to make better use of existing blood vessels and create new ones. More recent research suggests that weightlifting triggers similar adaptations. A study conducted at McMaster University in Canada stated that “Resistance training promotes microvasculature expansion⁶.” Upon further investigation, the researchers found that both high-repetition/low-load and low-repetition/high-load groups had an increase in capillarization and that all participants underwent angiogenesis (the creation of new blood vessels) in response to 12 weeks of weight training, regardless of the volume and intensity of their workouts.

Some of the same researchers conducted a different three-month study on a group of young men. They found that after just the second week of the strength training program, blood vessel changes were already underway. They found that these were in response to increases in muscle size (hypertrophy) resulting from the participants lifting weights⁷. In other words, the more muscle you build, the greater the number of blood vessels you need to bring oxygenated blood to them.

Read the Rest of This Series

Just joining us now? Then click the links below to catch up on the previous parts of this series. And check back soon for more new articles, including posts about the need to keep squatting, jumping, and sprinting and a myth-busting piece about kids and strength training.

How Resistance Training Age-Proofs Your Body (part 1)

The Cognitive Benefits of Resistance Training (part 2)

Boost Your Mood + Stabilize Your Hormones with Strength Training (part 3)

1. Naga Meka et al, “Endurance Exercise and Resistance Training in Cardiovascular Disease,” Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease, April 1, 2008, available online at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1753944708089701.

2. Andréia C C Queiroz et al, “Clinic and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Responses after Resistance Exercise,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, March 2009, available online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19209079/.

3. Daniel A Hackett, “Lung Function and Respiratory Muscle Adaptations of Endurance- and Strength-Trained Males,” Sports, December 10, 2020, available online at https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/8/12/160.

4. Peter I. Brown et al, “Ventilatory Muscle Strength, Diaphragm Thickness and Pulmonary Function in World-Class Powerlifters,” European Journal of Applied Physiology, September 20, 2013, available online at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-013-2726-4.

5. José Vilaça-Alves et al, “Comparison of Oxygen Uptake During and After the Execution of Resistance Exercises and Exercises Performed on Ergometers, Matched for Intensity,” Journal of Human Kinetics, October 2016, available online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28149422/.

6. Tanya M. Holloway et al, “Microvascular Adaptations to Resistance Training are Independent of Load in Resistance-Trained Young Men,” American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, August 1, 2018, available online at https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpregu.00118.2018.