Exercise regularly lowers the risk of heart disease. Furthermore, while any form of exercise is better than none at all, some may be healthier for your heart than others.
Your body is meant to move. Keeping active helps it perform many of its duties. Exercise has both direct and indirect benefits on heart health that can both prevent and improve heart disease.
Heart disease comprises many disorders that impact the heart's muscle, valves, blood arteries, or overall function. It is a subset of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, while numerous other factors also play a role.
Exercise not only helps build stronger heart muscles like it does other muscles in the body, but it can also support heart-healthy effects such:
- improved blood flow
- vascular strengthening
- reduced inflammation
- weight management
- lowered blood pressure
- balanced cholesterol levels
- blood sugar (glucose) regulation
This article can help you learn more about exercising for a healthy heart if you want to lower your risk of heart disease or improve the health outcomes associated with heart disease.
What are the best exercises for heart health?
The "best" workouts for heart health will vary depending on your degree of fitness and physical condition. Since every person is different, it's crucial to begin any workout programme cautiously and slowly.
Every physical activity helps your body, especially your heart, as long as it is performed safely and in proper form. However, frequent moderate-to-intense exercise tends to focus more on your cardio-respiratory (heart and lung) function.
Exercises with a moderate to high level of intensity are aerobic. They force your body to work its big muscles, such as your arms and legs, and they raise your heart rate. During an aerobic exercise, you'll notice that your heart rate and respiration both increase.
On a scale of 10, moderately intense activities are rated a 5 or 6. They cause a noticeable rise in respiration and pulse rate, but they don't make it too difficult for you to converse.
Exercises that are frequently performed at a moderate intensity include:
- brisk walking or unburdened hiking
- recreational bicycling
- water aerobics
- slow jogging
It's difficult to workout at a high intensity. Your respiration and heart rate will both noticeably increase. All you can say is maybe one or two words before gasping for air. Vigorous intensity exercise is a 7 or 8 on a 10-point scale.
Exercises that frequently achieve a high level of intensity include:
- running or sprinting
- hockey
- basketball
- jumping rope
- tennis
- swimming laps
The effort you put in and the level of difficulty involved in aerobic workouts might alter your intensity level. For instance, brisk walking on level ground might only be moderately intense, whereas brisk walking up a long slope or stairway might intensify into a vigorous activity.
It’s not only about aerobic exercise
Although aerobic workouts are the ones that target your heart the most, you should focus on other exercises as well for heart health.The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute states that weight training and flexibility exercises are essential components of any comprehensive fitness programme for heart health.
How much exercise does your heart need each week?
The American Heart Association's recommendations for physical exercise suggest that individuals should get:
- 150 minutes a week of aerobic exercise at a moderate level, or
- 75 minutes a week of aerobic exercise at a high level, or
- a mix of the two every week
At least twice a week, this should be combined with moderate-to-intense muscular building exercises, with the weekly total being 300 minutes of physical activity of any kind.
Children under the age of five should move around regularly throughout the day, and children aged six to seventeen should strive for at least 60 minutes a day of moderate to severe intensity exercise.
It is also recommended for kids to include three days a week of exercises that develop their muscles and bones.
Your physician will discuss how these broad recommendations relate to you. It matters what your age, medical history, and heart health objectives are.
For example, an exercise regimen designed largely for heart disease prevention will not look the same as one designed for someone recovering from a significant cardiac incident or operation.
Target heart rate for exercising for a healthy heart
The majority of workouts are designed to allow a range of effort and difficulty. For example, swimming can be an intense activity or a moderate exercise, depending on how hard you push yourself.
One technique to precisely monitor the level of intensity throughout your workouts is to figure out your goal heart rate. It can assist you in reaching your fitness objectives and in determining when to up the ante on your effort or difficulty as your fitness level increases.
The percentage of your maximum heart rate is your target heart rate. By deducting your age from 220, you may determine your maximum heart rate. Your maximum beats per minute (bpm) is indicated by the number you receive.
- Moderate intensity exercise: The range of your target heart rate is 50% to 70% of your maximum heart rate.
- Vigorous intensity exercise: The range of your target heart rate is between 70% to 85% of your maximal heart rate.
To compute this, multiply your projected maximal heart rate by the decimal conversion %.
For a 40-year-old, the computation for moderate effort may look like this:
- 220 – 40 = 180 bpm (maximum heart rate)
- 50% of maximum heart rate is 180 x 0.50 = 90 bpm
- 70% of the maximum heart rate is 180 x 0.70 = 126 bpm
This indicates that your goal heart rate range for moderate-intensity exercise if you're 40 years old, is 90–126 bpm.
What happens if your heart rate is too high during exercise?
Your maximal heart rate serves as a gauge for when your heart is under safe and harmful stress. Overdoing it on your heart rate raises the risk of an unfavourable cardiac event and can seriously harm your heart and blood vessels.
Although surpassing your maximum heart rate can be more harmful than going over your target heart rate, going over your target heart rate can still place undue pressure on your heart and increase the risk of disorders like overtraining syndrome.
When engaging in moderate- to vigorous-intensity exercise, if your heart rate exceeds your goal heart rate, reduce your pace or stop. Spend some time cooling down completely and rehydrating while keeping a close eye on your heart rate to make sure it's stabilising.
Resuming your activity after you've returned to baseline will allow you to progressively raise your effort until you reach your goal heart range.
See a doctor as soon as you can if your heart rate doesn't go down even after you've rested if you experience chest pain, difficulty breathing, or lose consciousness.
How often should you check your heart rate when exercising?
Depending on your health objectives, your doctor can talk to you about how often to monitor your heart rate while doing out. Every five to ten minutes may be sufficient for some people, but ongoing monitoring may be necessary for others.
Ways to track your heart rate
By physically applying pressure to a pulse location on your body, such as your wrist or neck, you may monitor your heart rate. Count the beats you feel for sixty seconds, starting at zero, or count for thirty seconds and multiply the result by two.
It's not always practicable to stop every five minutes to manually take a heart rate reading because heart rate tracking is done often during a workout. Fortunately, several gadgets can monitor your heart rate without interfering with your workout routine.
Among these devices are:
- chest bands
- wrist or arm wearables
- smart rings
- pulse oximeters, which are attached to a portable device and worn on the tip of the finger
- smartphones
- sensors placed into stationary cycles, treadmills, etc.
Chest bands are generally regarded as the most precise commercially available heart rate monitors. Electrodes can continuously detect the electrical signals produced when the heart contracts because of their proximity to the heart.
Chest bands are less vulnerable to signal disturbances from movement or a lack of skin contact than monitors carried or worn on other body areas.
Tips for making exercise part of your routine
It might be intimidating to begin an exercise regimen, particularly if it has never been your primary emphasis. Take into account these pointers to make working out seem less like a hassle and more like second nature:
- Together with your physician, determine reasonable objectives that correspond to your current level of fitness.
- Concentrate on things you enjoy doing, and as you advance, figure out how to up the ante on them.
- Make regular tasks into opportunities for exercise, such as parking further away to increase your walking distance.
- Gradually increase the length, frequency, and intensity of your workouts.
- Make time for exercise on your calendar so that it's planned and not something you do "when you have time."
- To stay motivated and enjoy your workouts more, find a friend.
- Give yourself a reward when you hit fitness goals (such as running X miles for the first time).
- Be adaptable. If you have less time than usual, even a shorter workout regimen is preferable to none at all.
- Change up your routine with fresh workouts, fitness courses, or beautiful settings.
Remember to treat yourself with kindness. It's acceptable to need an extra rest day or to have days when exercising is the last thing you want to do. Don't allow missing a day to stop you from moving forward. As quickly as you can, get back on track.
Bottom line
Exercise that ranges from moderate to intense is beneficial to your heart. It can enhance several processes that support heart health and strengthen the heart muscle.
A comprehensive fitness regimen should include strength training and flexibility exercises in addition to cardiovascular activity, which is especially advised for heart health.
You can enhance your health and help avoid heart disease by engaging in regular exercise. You can gradually get into the habit of exercising regularly by setting realistic goals and concentrating on enjoyable activities.
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