UNIFESP Study Finds 8 Weeks of Swimming Outbuilds Running for Heart Growth
Updated
Updated · SciTechDaily · Jun 19
UNIFESP Study Finds 8 Weeks of Swimming Outbuilds Running for Heart Growth
3 articles · Updated · SciTechDaily · Jun 19
Summary
An eight-week mouse study found swimming and running lifted fitness similarly, but only swimming significantly increased overall heart mass and left ventricular mass.
VO2 max rose by more than 5% in both exercise groups after 60-minute sessions five days a week, indicating the advantage was not general fitness but heart-specific adaptation.
Swimming also boosted myocardial contractile force and triggered stronger microRNA changes tied to heart-cell growth, angiogenesis, protection from cell death and oxidative-stress responses.
UNIFESP researchers said the findings suggest swimming and running should not be treated as interchangeable in exercise research and could make swimming especially relevant for cardiac rehabilitation and myocardial recovery.