Over the years, if there is one thing researchers and the medical world noticed, it is a blatant increase in heart health issues in old and young alike. The primary cause for this is the everyday stresses of life, inactivity, and poor diet. Keeping all this in mind, it is essential for any individual – and especially those who have a history of heart conditions in their families – to take measures to keep their heart healthy.
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Can Exercise Prove Helpful in Improving Heart Health?
The question is how this can be done. Well, the best way to ensure your heart health is to incorporate the right exercises in your life. If you are curious to know in-depth about the best exercises for heart health. this article has got you covered. Let’s delve into it to begin exploring!
Multiple studies have shown exercises to be effective in improving heart health. Those who exercise regularly are less prone to heart issues, like heart stroke or other life-threatening heart diseases. However, to maximize the benefits of exercise, you should accompany it with a healthy diet.
Delving deeper, daily exercise, either moderate or vigorous, strengthens your heart muscles, improving the heart’s pumping efficiency and consequently increasing the oxygen level in the blood.
According to a study, those who work out for 300 to 599 minutes weekly observe considerable benefits. These include 26% to 31% lower all-cause mortality and 28% to 38% lower cardiovascular mortality. These results are truly surprising.
Now, you must be curious to know in-depth about the exercises that can prove the most fruitful in this regard. If that’s the case, we have got you covered with our top picks of the five best exercises for heart health. Let’s hop on below to begin exploring them!
The Top Five Best Exercises for Heart Health
Taking the proper measures and incorporating exercise to strengthen your heart is the best thing you can do for your overall health. This is especially the case if you have a history of heart disease in your family or you simply worry a lot about your heart health. Let’s now hop straight onto the best exercises for heart health that you can easily incorporate into your everyday life:
Walking
Walking is undeniably one of the most influential and simplest exercises to ensure that your heart remains healthy. This form of exercise requires no additional training knowledge or any special equipment. All you need is a good pair of shoes and the motivation to walk for 15-20 minutes daily.
However, suppose you have just started on this exercise, and an extended period of walking tires you out. We suggest that you pick up shorter walks and then gradually increase your lengths, time, and intensity once you get used to it. Moreover, it is also essential to consider that while leisurely strolling might seem fun, it is not the type of walking that would help your heart.
Instead, we suggest that you take up a faster pace, which can make your heart beat faster, too. The faster your heart will beat while walking, the better it is for maintaining your cardiovascular health.
Jogging
If you feel like walking is a piece of cake for you, you can upgrade your exercise regime a bit. Now we suggest you put on your running shoes and go out for a jog.
Jogging is a great way to raise your heart rate, which provides benefits to your overall heart health. Like walking, this form of exercise also doesn’t require any additional knowledge or equipment – all you should know is how to run.
While many people might push their limits on the first go and run super fast, we suggest against it. Start by running a little slowly and then gradually increase your momentum. This will work more favorably in maintaining your heart health.
Moreover, apart from adequate heart health, jogging also provides other essential benefits like reducing stress levels, strength, and endurance and can even help you sleep better.
Swimming
Swimming is not only a sport you should take up during the lazy summer days. In fact, incorporating this form of exercise to ensure heart health is one of the best decisions you can make. So, sign up for a swimming class if you like the waters, and indulge in this full-body workout that helps strengthen not only your muscles but also your heart.
When swimming, you breathe relatively faster, work on large muscle groups, and eventually elevate the heart rate, improving your lung’s efficiency. In short, the more you swim, the more your heart health and blood pressure issues will improve.
The best part about taking up swimming is that it is relatively easier on the joints compared to other exercises. Hence, it will allow you to move your body without much pain.
Cycling
Do you have a cycle standing in your garage accumulating dust? Well, then, it is time to take it out, wipe the dust off, and gear up for a cycling adventure. Cycling for years has shown the ability to reduce the risk of heart disease in many individuals.
When cycling, you use the large muscles in your legs, which ultimately help increase your heart rate and hence work beneficially towards maintaining heart health. If you do not have a traditional cycle, you can use a gym cycle, too. The best part? Apart from just your heart health, cycling is known to show positive impact on a person’s mental health as well.
Weightlifting
It is not a typical form of aerobic exercise, but weightlifting has shown exceptional to the heart. According to a study, lifting weights less than an hour weekly can reduce the risk of heart stroke by 40 to 70%.
Though you might think that strength training, like weightlifting, demands too much effort to show visible results, that’s not the case. You can significantly improve your overall health by dedicating only five minutes to two bench presses daily.
Weightlifting helps you build muscle mass. Lean muscle mass, that assists in balancing cholesterol and blood sugar levels while burning extra calories. All these play crucial roles in maintaining overall health. So, the next time your friends ask for a subscription, think twice before saying no, as gyms aren’t only for bodybuilders. They are for everyone looking to explore the health benefits of strength training and exercise.
Wrapping It Up!
While we did try to conclude the five best exercises for heart health, this isn’t it. Instead, there are so many other exceptional exercises that you can incorporate, too. Let us know whether you will be taking up the exercises we have mentioned above or enlighten us about some other types of exercises that you carry out to maintain your heart health.
Hope you found this info worth reading; stay tuned for more of such interesting and comprehensive guides!