We all know that exercise improves the heart’s functions but did you know that not exercising could be worse on your heart than just about anything? According to a recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, inactivity is the largest risk factor for heart disease in women over the age of 30. The largest factor! That means it is crucial to your health and your longevity that you get moving. Walk, run, swim anything you like to do to be active, but get up and get going.
Thirty minutes is all it takes of vigorous exercise each day. Of course, once you begin exercising regularly, you will probably find you want to exercise longer, too. Challenge yourself each session or each week by changing your routine and adding weights or resistance to your cardio exercises. The idea is to train your heart to work harder and become stronger.
If you have been walking for exercise and find it becoming almost too easy. Try wearing a backpack with weights inside. This will make your walk a bit more difficult as you work your entire body to accommodate the added weight. To work your arm muscles, you can carry little hand weights to build arm muscles and add some resistance to your stride. The same idea can be carried over to cardio activities at the gym, if the exercise becomes mundane, change it up and add something different.
The important thing is to keep moving. No matter what your age, it is never too late to benefit from exercise. Medical News Today reported that starting exercise at the age of 40 has the same heart benefits as earlier training. A reassuring fact that exercise improves health and is essential to our well being.
As healthy as exercise is for the heart, it is also beneficial to other organs in the body as well. Thirty minutes of vigorous exercise will increase your lung capacity, aid in circulation, reduce inflammation, and help you to control your weight. When you exert your body, it uses the calories that you consume for energy. Regular exercise will help you to burn those calories rather than store them.
In addition to cardio exercises to improve heart health, resistance exercises also benefit the heart by making it work harder. That is why an exercise program that alternates cardio and strength is the best combination to keep your heart healthy, while losing weight and staying in shape.
- One-on-One 
- Visit me on Facebook - 
- Follow F4H on Twitter - 
- Follow me on Twitter -