• Posted June 1, 2026

Workout Habits May Protect Against Inherited Heart Problems

Folks who regularly exercise can lower their risk of heart attack and heart failure linked to a genetic heart condition, a new study says.

People with higher levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity had lower rates of heart health problems caused by genetically driven cardiomyopathy, researchers reported recently in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Cardiomyopathy is a group of diseases that weaken the heart muscle, causing it to inefficiently pump blood to the rest of the body, researchers said in background notes.

“Our findings suggest that, even among people who carry genetic variants for cardiomyopathy but have no signs of disease, staying physically active may be associated with lower rates of future cardiovascular events,” said senior researcher Dr. Pankaj Arora, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's (UAB) Cardiogenomics Clinic Program.

“Genetic risk may not be deterministic, and exercise is a modifiable factor that people can act on to help protect their heart,” he said in a news release.

Cardiomyopathy is a leading cause of heart failure and sudden cardiac death, and families with a genetic history of the condition are at increased risk for heart problems, researchers said.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data from more than 15,000 people participating in a large-scale project that tracked their physical activity using wearable fitness devices.

Of those participants, 831 carried genes that increased their risk for cardiomyopathy, researchers said.

Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommend that people get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise.

Examples of moderate-intensity exercise include brisk walking, slow bicycling, active yoga, line dancing, or general yard or home repair work, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Vigorous exercise includes running, swimming laps, aerobic dancing, fast bicycling, jumping rope and heavy yard work, like digging or shoveling.

Results showed that people genetically predisposed to cardiomyopathy who got less than the recommended amount of exercise a week had the highest rate of heart health problems.

On the other hand, those who got the recommended amount of exercise had rates of heart health problems similar to inactive people without genetic risk for cardiomyopathy, researchers found.

Active people with no genetic predisposition had the lowest rate of heart problems.

“What makes this study stand out is that we used real-world data from wearable devices rather than self-reported exercise habits, which can be unreliable,” said lead researcher Dr. Amrita Nayak, an international visiting scholar at UAB.

“It’s exciting to see that, even among people carrying these high-risk gene variants, staying active appears to make a difference,” Nayak said.

These results offer a hopeful message to people whose genetics might increase their risk for heart disease, concluded researcher Dr. Garima Arora, co-director of UAB's Cardiogenomics Clinic.

“People can learn whether they carry the cardiomyopathy gene through genetic testing and incorporate physical activity into their lifestyles to stay heart-healthy and protect themselves against heart disease,” she said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on examples of vigorous or moderate physical activity.

SOURCE: University of Alabama at Birmingham, news release, May 27, 2026