Did you know that the average heart beats approximately 2.5 billion times in a lifetime? This organ works extremely hard every day, so it’s important to treat it with love and care. This includes following heart-healthy habits like eating well, exercising, quitting smoking, and minimizing stress. I talked to him. Elizabeth Claude, MD, FACCA board-certified cardiologist, author, speaker, founder of a preventive heart disease clinic near Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founder and chief medical officer of Step One Foods, he shares simple fitness tips to boost heart health. I learned some tips.
Learn the absolute best way to show your heart some love and take care of your heart through fitness. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), regular moderate to vigorous exercise increases the strength of your heart muscle. This improves the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the body. When your heart is working at its best, more blood reaches your muscles and oxygen levels in your blood increase.
If you’re ready to update your workout routine, keep reading for easy fitness tips to boost your heart health. Once you’re done reading, be sure to check out her top 4 heart-healthy foods that a cardiologist eats.
Dr. Clodas emphasizes the importance of daily exercise. “Just do something! Any amount of exercise is better than no exercise at all,” she emphasizes. “Even just moving from being a couch potato to moderate activity can lead to significant reductions in heart disease.”
Great ways to improve your routine include parking a little further away when you run errands, riding your bike around town (if you live nearby), or taking your dog for a walk a little longer instead of letting him out in the back. There are things like taking them with you. door! If you work from home, you can also put a walking pad under your desk or add weights to your ankles for extra calorie burn. The possibilities are endless when it comes to adding extra physical activity into your day, so get creative.
There are many options for adding aerobic exercise to your day. Dr. Clodas explains, “Moving through space, whether by walking, biking, dancing, or rowing, can help lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels.”
And the benefits of this form of exercise are backed up by research. According to a study published in American Medical Association Journalpatients dealing with heart failure improved their health and quality of life by doing aerobic exercise (cycling or walking) three to five times a week for three years.
If you want to live a long, healthy, independent life, you know that incorporating strength training into your daily routine is important, especially when it comes to building and maintaining muscle mass. But did you know the link between strength training and heart health?
Some studies reflect that weightlifting has more protective effects against heart disease compared to aerobic exercise. In fact, according to research from Iowa State University, spending less than an hour each week lifting weights can reduce your chances of suffering a stroke or heart attack by as much as 40% to 70%.
“Resistance training can improve your cholesterol profile and is especially important for maintaining healthy blood sugar levels, which has many important downstream effects,” says Dr. Clodas.
Doing physical activity every day is a great way to reduce stress. “Stress can cause not only high blood pressure but also acute conditions such as heart attack,” Dr. Klodas explains. “Most importantly, stress makes you less alert and less concerned about your health, which can lead you to eat the wrong things, eat too much, and drink too much.”
Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight for yourself is one of the greatest gifts you can give your soul. According to UCSF Health, being overweight is associated with increased blood cholesterol, diabetes, and blood pressure.
“Exercise can help you lose weight, but exercise is the best way to ensure you maintain your weight once you reach your goal weight,” says Dr. Clodas. “The people who lose weight and keep it off are the ones who add regular exercise to their lifestyle.”
You don’t need to join a gym or perform a super complicated fitness routine to boost your heart health. Simply taking a few brisk walks each day is a great way to exercise. The best thing about walking is that you don’t need any fancy equipment and you can check it off your list wherever you are. Dr. Krodas recommends capturing an hour’s worth of walking (approximately 4 miles) each day. Time flies when you invite friends to join you or stream a fun podcast.
After all, don’t overcomplicate things. You can easily commit to a game plan without having to go all in from the beginning. “You don’t have to achieve your fitness goals overnight,” asserts Dr. Krodas. “For example, if his goal is to walk for an hour each day, by starting with one minute and increasing by one minute each day, he can reach his 60-minute goal in just two months.”
Don’t be too hard on yourself and enjoy the physical activity of your choice. At the end of the day, Dr. Krodas says, “There’s no right or wrong exercise. Do what you want. If you like cycling, ride your bike. If you like hiking, go for a hike. Yoga or If you like Pilates, it’s ideal to mix it up a bit for a more rounded approach, but it’s more about how you move your body than how you move it.” Basically, just do it. Let’s!
“Make sure you do something you enjoy, conditioned on exercise,” suggests Dr. Krodas. For example, if you like to binge-watch movies or sports, do it while riding the treadmill or stationary bike. Or, if reading is more your thing, order an audio version of a new book and enjoy listening to it while walking around the city.
