A Solid Link Between Exercise and Cholesterol
A multitude of research studies has already proven the positive connection between exercise and cholesterol. Fact says that with regular exercise, the blood cholesterol, specifically the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is decreased whilst the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), aka good cholesterol, is increased.
However, we can’t say that exercise and cholesterol are inversely proportional to each other because technically, if you increase exercise, sure bad ones go down but the good ones go up. And if you decrease exercise, the bad ones go up and the good ones fall down. Nevertheless, what’s important is that the bad goes down with exercise and there’s no use dwelling in this part of the discussion longer than necessary.
The LDL is the one responsible for distributing cholesterol throughout the body. It is the reason why plaques build up in the blood vessels, causing atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and other more serious cardiovascular diseases. LDL is produced by the liver and its optimal level is less than 100mg/dL. Going beyond that value can cause several diseases.
HDL, on the other hand, is the good cholesterol. Having high levels of this kind is indicative of a healthy cholesterol level. The optimum level of HDL is above 60mg/dL. It is important in transporting cholesterol from the blood into the liver to be recycled or degraded. This ensures a healthy heart by preventing atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular problems.
Researchers say that the kind of exercise does not really matter. What’s important is that you exercise. Although, experts say that a mix of aerobics, resistance, and stretching exercises are the best since they all maximize different areas of physical fitness—strength, endurance, and limber. To produce good results, regular exercise of at least 30 minutes 5-6 days a week is important. You don’t necessarily have to put your heart rate on the red zone, as long as you keep your heart pumping. With moderate intensity exercises, the triglycerides are lowered by 30%-40% as it increases the HDL by 5-8mg/dL.
Several mechanisms are believed to be involved in lowering cholesterol through exercise. It is said that exercise stimulates the increase of HDL (we already know that) and once they get their job done, you will have less worries regarding the fat cells in your blood.
Secondly, researchers have been made to believe basing from their studies that exercise affects the size of lipoproteins. 
There have been many mention of “lipoprotein” and to explain briefly, it is a combination of protein carrying fat molecules for transportation from and into the liver. The relevance of their size to cardiovascular health is that the smaller the size, the more able they are to squeeze into the linings of the heart, and that’s when things get messy.
Consequently, they become less dangerous if you make them bigger. That way their bulk will disable them from ever getting into those little spaces of the heart linings, leaving the organ healthy. As to how the exercise contributes to the increase of their size, no firm explanation exists yet. Let’s wait for these researchers to think of something, shall we?
The link between exercise and cholesterol has been gradually uncovered. The gross part of it has already been proven and studied. However, the more detailed and in-depth portions are still on its way to being fully understood.