Strong Legs Increases Your Chance of Surviving Heart Attacks by 41 Percent

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A new Japanese study suggests that people with strong leg muscles are less likely to experience heart failure following a heart attack, also known medically as myocardial infarction, shedding light on the significance of quadriceps muscles and the potential for resistance training as a preventative measure.

The long-term study of 932 heart attack patients was presented at Heart Failure 2023, a scientific meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

The findings need to be replicated in other studies, but they do suggest that strength training involving the quadriceps muscles should be recommended for patients who have experienced a heart attack to prevent heart failure, study author Kensuke Ueno, a physical therapist at Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, said on May 20 in a release.

“Quadriceps strength is easy and simple to measure accurately in clinical practice,” Ueno said.

“Our study indicates that quadriceps strength could help to identify patients at a higher risk of developing heart failure after myocardial infarction who could then receive more intense surveillance.”

Study Method

To investigate the association between leg strength and the risk of developing heart failure after a heart attack, the study analysed patients who were hospitalised for heart attacks between 2007 to 2020 and had an average age of 66 years.

These patients did not have heart failure before admission and did not experience heart failure complications during their hospital stay.

The patients sat on a chair and contracted the quadriceps muscles as hard as possible for five seconds so that the researchers could measure the maximum strength of the quadriceps as an indicator of leg strength.

During a follow-up of four and a half years, 67 patients (7.2 percent) developed heart failure.

After adjusting for age, sex, body mass, index, prior myocardial infarction or angina pectoris, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral arterial disease, and kidney function, the researchers found that the risk of heart failure was nearly doubled in those with below-average quad strength.

“Compared with low quadriceps strength, a high strength level was associated with a 41 percent lower risk of developing heart failure,” the authors wrote.

“Each five percent body weight increment in quadriceps strength was associated with an 11 percent lower likelihood of heart failure.”

Researchers have found that leg strength is linked with a lower risk of developing heart failure after a heart attack. (Lightspring/Shutterstock)

Older Adults Who Lift Weights Live Longer

Over the past decade, researchers have begun to demonstrate the benefits of strength training for strength, muscle mass, and physical function, as well as for improvements in chronic conditions such as diabetes, osteoporosis, low back pain, and obesity.

Small studies have observed that greater muscle strength is associated with a lower risk of death.

Older adults who strength trained at least twice a week were found in a Penn State College of Medicine study to have 46 percent lower odds of death for any reason than those who did not.

They also had 41 percent lower odds of cardiac death and 19 percent lower odds of dying from cancer.

“The study is strong evidence that strength training in older adults is beneficial beyond improving muscle strength and physical function,” Assistant Professor of Medicine and public health sciences Jennifer L. Kraschnewski said.