Weight lifting isn’t necessarily bad for your heart, unless you do intense exercises regularly that could put strain on your chest. Anything that involves you holding your breath can spike your blood pressure.
Whilst any form of exercise will increase blood pressure, this increase is only temporary. Squatting, for example, will increase your blood pressure around your cardiovascular system, which is good. Holding your breath during strenuous weight lifting exercises can put unnecessary strain on your heart, which can be painful.
Whilst your heart is a muscle, you don’t want to exercise it in the same way as you would your other muscles. When you exercise your legs on leg day, you are contributing to muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth). You don’t want this to happen to your heart, because this can lead to a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is when the walls around the heart grow, which prevents blood from pumping around the body effectively.
However, you shouldn’t worry about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy if you only do these exercises occasionally. This is a condition that is generally hereditary or caused by excessive and continuous exercises that negatively affect your heart.
When matched with other exercises, weight lifting won’t be bad for your heart. It’s always good to have a range of fitness exercises to encompass every part of your body - from cardio to core training exercises. Aerobic exercises like running and cycling will benefit from additional weight training to increase muscle and bone density as well as endurance.
If done correctly, weight training can help you with day-to-day activities like lifting a heavy bag of groceries and moving furniture, as it will have prepared your body to withstand heavy weights. This could be considered good for your heart, as it means that your body won’t be tense from holding an unexpected heavy weight which could put a strain on your heart.
However, there are people who should avoid weight training if they want to preserve the health of their hearts. This includes people with congestive heart failure, acute infection of the heart or tissue, angina and other coronary heart diseases, uncontrolled high blood pressure, and anyone with a history of heart attacks or cardiac arrests.
We rely on our hearts to live, so you must consult with a doctor before weight training if you have a heart problem. It’s not like having a consistent leg injury but still going to the gym, because we can exist without one leg.
The short answer to this question is that weight lifting isn’t necessarily bad for your heart if you take it seriously. Weight lifting is a great exercise paired with aerobic and cardio exercises to strengthen and improve the muscles, bones, and endurance. It’s best to work with a trainer or professional to learn how to breathe whilst lifting weights, as you don’t want to put unnecessary strain on your chest or heart.
However, if you have a heart condition or history of heart problems, you should check with a doctor to see if you can commit to weight training.