The Best Types of Exercise to Improve Cholesterol and Blood Lipids

Cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, Oh my! We hear these terms a LOT in our current day and age—in the news, at our doctors’ offices, and around the table. And for good reason. These lab values are major indicators of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death across the world, causing 17.9 million deaths annually according to the World Health Organization.

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But What About Exercise?

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We often talk about nutrition and lifestyle changes to make when working on improving labs. But when it comes to exercise, most of the time doctors simply leave it as:

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“Exercise more.”
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But what do we actually do for exercise if we want to see these values improve?
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Do we pump iron, go for a long slow jog, or crush some HIIT sessions? Let’s discuss.

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What Are the Different Types of Exercise?

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First, let’s start out with defining the different types of exercise—aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise, as well as resistance training. I promise this won’t be a boring physiology lecture—you probably know about these already!

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Aerobic Exercise

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The ACSM defines aerobic training as:

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“any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously and is rhythmic in nature.”

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Think walking, jogging, hiking, cycling, swimming, dancing, rowing, using the elliptical, and more. The word aerobic means “with oxygen” so think about activities where you’re breathing heavier, and the flow of oxygen is consistent for an extended period of time.
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A helpful way to gauge this level of intensity is the talk test—when performing aerobic exercise, you should be able to say a full sentence, although you are definitely breathing harder.

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Anaerobic Exercise

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This is defined as:

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“intense physical activity of very short duration.”

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Anaerobic means “without oxygen,” which can be confusing. This doesn’t mean that our bodies don’t still need oxygen! In simple terms, it means that the exercise is so intense that the body doesn’t have time to get enough oxygen to the working muscles—so after the exercise bout is over, the body will need to work hard to provide that oxygen.

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This is why anaerobic exercise is very short in duration. This is when you are breathing SO hard you can’t talk in full sentences—you are focused on catching your breath! Think the 100m dash, sprinting up a hill, HIIT training, Assault bike intervals, certain CrossFit WODs, etc.

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Resistance Training

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What most people know as lifting weights. Resistance training is primarily focused on increasing the size and/or strength of the muscles. RT is technically considered anaerobic training as it is short in duration and high intensity, but we usually categorize it as a separate mode of training due to the way we train as well as how it “feels” to us.

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How Does Each Type of Exercise Impact Blood Lipids?

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We know that exercise does, in fact, improve blood lipids and decrease the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease.
The effect of exercise on blood lipids appears to be due to the fact that exercise improves the body’s ability to utilize fats as fuel for movement.

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When we look for lab improvements that correlate with better health, improved life expectancy, and decreased risk of disease, we look generally for:

• Decreases in: total triglycerides, cholesterol, and LDL
• Increases in: HDL

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Here’s the great news:
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Research in this area actually shows that all 3 types of exercise can improve lab markers. However, certain types of exercise are better than others for improving specific lab values. Let’s go through each one.

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So... What Should You Do?

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As you can see, anaerobic exercise appears to have the most impact overall on blood lipids. So in addition to nutrition and lifestyle changes, if you have high or non-optimal blood lipids, it would help to add in some high-intensity, short-duration exercise.

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However, you can also see that ALL forms of exercise can help improve total triglycerides, so don’t feel like you need to start switching out all your other physical activity to high-intensity anaerobic work. In fact, anaerobic work can be difficult to recover from if done too frequently, so keep that in mind.

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Sample Weeks of Balanced Training to Support Better Blood Lipids

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Untrained / Beginner

• 1x/week: 5–10 minutes anaerobic exercise
• 2x/week: 20–30 minutes aerobic exercise (low intensity, i.e., walking)
• 1x/week: 30 minutes resistance training

Intermediate

• 1x/week: 15 minutes anaerobic exercise
• 2–3x/week: 30–60 minutes aerobic exercise (some low intensity/long duration, some moderate intensity/moderate duration)
• 2x/week: Resistance Training

Advanced

• 2x/week: 15–20 minutes anaerobic exercise
• 3x/week: 30–60 minutes aerobic exercise (some low intensity, some moderate intensity)
• 3x/week: Resistance training

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Final Thoughts

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We know at LVLTN that exercise can have powerful effects on our bodies—mentally, physically, emotionally, and from a health perspective. Combined with lifestyle and nutritional interventions, many of the current diseases we see associated with sedentary lifestyles could be vastly diminished with the addition of regular exercise.

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Remember – ANY type of exercise can improve blood lipids, so find something you enjoy doing and go for it! And if you need a more aggressive intervention, make sure to get a wide variety of activities and intensities while you work on your nutrition.

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Ready to start thriving again? Let us help by putting an expert in your corner to get you there faster and maintain that progress for life! Learn more about our online health coaching by clicking here!

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REFERENCES

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Y. Buzdagli, A. Tekin, C.D. Eyipinar, F. Öget, E. Siktar, The effect of different types of exercise on blood lipid profiles: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies, Science & Sports, Volume 37, Issue 8, 2022, Pages 675-687

Mann S, Beedie C, Jimenez A. Differential effects of aerobic exercise, resistance training and combined exercise modalities on cholesterol and the lipid profile: review, synthesis and recommendations. Sports Med. 2014 Feb;44(2):211-21. doi: 10.1007/s40279-013-0110-5. PMID: 24174305; PMCID: PMC3906547.

Patel H, Alkhawam H, Madanieh R, Shah N, Kosmas CE, Vittorio TJ. Aerobic vs anaerobic exercise training effects on the cardiovascular system. World J Cardiol. 2017 Feb 26;9(2):134-138. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.134. PMID: 28289526; PMCID: PMC5329739.

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