Combining resistance exercises such as weight lifting with endurance training safely improves the health of people with chronic heart failure, researchers in Belgium report.

Although resistive weight training is theoretically beneficial to heart failure patients, there is concern that it could cause unfavorable changes in the structure of the heart and perhaps trigger dangerous heartbeat irregularities, Dr. Viviane M. Conraads and colleagues at University Hospital Antwerp explain in the European Heart Journal.

Conraads’ group followed 27 heart failure patients who participated in a combined endurance and resistance exercise program, along with 22 similar patients (“controls”) who could not participate. The exercise program included three hour-long sessions per week for 4 months.

The investigators measured levels of a protein called NT-proBNP, which is a good marker of heart-wall stress as well as an indicator of mortality risk.

Levels of NT-proBNP decreased by about 25 percent at the end of the 4-month training period in the exercise group, but remained unchanged in the control group. Heart function also was improved only in the trained group.

Those in the training class exhibited a significant decrease in heart dimensions, which argues against any harmful effect from resistive weight training in heart failure patients, the investigators report.

There were no adverse events, such as hospitalization, heart attack or severe heart rhythm abnormalities during the study.

“The results of the present study add to the evidence that a combined training protocol offers both a safe and effective approach” for people with severe heart failure, Conraads team concludes.

SOURCE: European Heart Journal, October 2004.