Weightlifting May Offer Benefits to Patients With Kidney Disease

Lifting weights is one of the best ways to build muscle and promote better health. It creates small tears in muscle fiber, allowing the body to repair and rebuilt this tissue stronger than before. However, there's new evidence suggesting that weightlifting may offer additional health benefits to individuals suffering from kidney disease.

Researchers from the University of Leicester found that patients suffering from chronic kidney disease experience increased strength, muscle mass and cardiorespiratory fitness after engaging in weightlifting and cardio exercises for three times a week for three months.

According to the study, participants experienced some of these benefits from engaging in aerobic exercise like running on the treadmill or rowing alone. However, the benefits were intensified when participants added weightlifting to their exercise regimen. Researchers, for instance, found that participants who engaged only in aerobic exercise experienced a 17% increase in strength, while those who performed weightlifting and cardio experienced a 49% increase in strength.

For the study, researchers recruited patients suffering from chronic kidney disease from various outpatient clinics in the Leicester Hospital network, following them over the course of 12 weeks as they performed cardio and weightlifting exercises.

"There is limited research on the effects of exercise in CKD patients, and a lack of knowledge on what exercise is most beneficial in this group" says Dr Tom Wilkinson from the University of Leicester's Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation. "Our study shows that both aerobic exercises and strength exercises are important in CKD patients in keeping muscles strong and healthy and can be combined successfully and safely."

So, how does weightlifting offer such amazing health benefits to patients suffering from chronic kidney disease? That questions remains open to debate. This study only found a connection between weightlifting and the aforementioned health benefits in patients with chronic kidney disease. It did not reveal the exact cause of the connection.

Nonetheless, it's no secret that weightlifting is good for your health. Other studies have shown that people who lift weights or perform other high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises on a regular basis have lower rates of heart disease and early mortality. Weightlifting promotes a healthy heart while strengthening the muscles and body.

If you want to take full advantage of weightlifting, however, you should perform it in conjunction with aerobics exercises. If you lift weights on Monday, for instance, consider aerobics exercises on Tuesday. You can then alternate between the two types of physical fitness in the days to follow.