A major UK Biobank study has found that men may need to exercise almost twice as much as women to achieve the same level of heart protection. The research, which tracked the activity of 85,000 participants using accelerometers, offers new insight into how physical activity affects cardiovascular health differently in men and women.
Published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, the study by Jiajin Chen and colleagues dismantles the “one-size-fits-all” fitness myth.
While global health bodies, from the WHO to the American Heart Association, champion 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity weekly, the data reveal it isn’t enough for men.
Women meeting that target saw a 22 % lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), but men only 17 %. To reach a comparable 30 % drop, men needed about 530 minutes a week, nearly an hour a day of real movement.
Even more striking: among those already living with CHD, active women had a 70 % lower mortality risk, while men achieved only about 19 %. The numbers whisper an uncomfortable truth – men’s hearts demand more effort.
Biological factors may underlie this gap: estrogen enhances fat oxidation and vascular flexibility, while men’s greater muscle mass and type II fibres require more sustained exertion to elicit the same gains.
Below are five key findings from the study:
- Among CHD-free participants, those meeting the 150 min/week guideline had 22 % lower CHD risk in women versus 17 % in men (interaction p = 0.009).
- To achieve a 30 % risk reduction, women needed ~250 min/week of MVPA, whereas men required ~530 min/week.
- In patients already diagnosed with CHD, guideline-adherent women had a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.30 (≈70 % mortality reduction), while men had HR = 0.81.
- Each additional day of meeting the daily MVPA quota was associated with incremental reductions in CHD incidence for both sexes, with a stronger gradient in women (interaction p < 0.05).
- The sex difference in exercise benefits remained robust across sensitivity analyses (adjusting covariates, excluding early events, competing-risk models).
Gentlemen, it’s time to reframe your strategy: 150 minutes remains a baseline, not a cap. To match the cardiac resilience women may gain more readily, men should aim higher, not for show, but for survival. Light your own internal metrics: consistent daily activity, smarter intensity, and gradual accumulation.
The message isn’t “exercise more” in a vague sense, but “exercise with purpose, persistence, and precision.”
