Fitness4Her

Women's Fitness

The Heart of a Healthy Lifestyle

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Heart disease is still the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States. That does not mean it has to happen to you. You have the power to prevent heart disease, no matter if you are 17 or 77, you can make healthy lifestyle changes that will lower your risks of heart disease or stroke.

It’s important to make healthy lifestyle changes as early as possible since the risks of heart disease increase dramatically during menopause and after. But it is never to late to take action. Protecting your heart can be as simple as taking a brisk walk, eating more vegetables, and seeing your doctor regularly.

Diet and exercise are two factors that are prominent in creating a heart healthy lifestyle. Maintaining a healthy weight is important for a vibrant, vigorous life. Unfortunately, research shows that American women are eating more and moving less.

If you need to lose weight, the best approach is a gradual one. Don’t skip meals, don’t fall for fad diets, and don’t give up. Do eat 3 to 5 meals every day. Do make your portion sizes smaller. Do eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

There are many diets that can help you lose weight. If you have struggled with weight gain and loss in the past, take it day by day. Use a fitness journal to chart your efforts, recording your current weight and measurements. You will want to keep track of everything you eat and drink so you will know what food choices work and which ones don’t.

Exercise at least 6 days a week. Alternate your workouts between cardio activities and strength training exercises. Build up your strength and implement circuit training into your routine, adding weights and coordinating weightlifting with cardio. It has been proven that just 30 minutes of exercise each day will help to improve heart function and protect your health.

Regular physical activity not only improves heart function, it also relieves stress and depression, major factors for heart disease and other health conditions. Daily exercise is good for the body, mind and soul. It increases endorphins, opens your lungs, improves circulation, and energizes every cell in your body. Follow that up with adequate sleep each night, so your body has time to restore all that energy and give your heart the rest it needs.

Have A Healthy Happy Heart

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A happy heart is more than just a state of mind. Keeping your heart healthy and happy is one of the best things you can do for your body, mind and soul.
Unfortunately, heart disease is still the leading cause of death for both men and women. Surprisingly, one in four women will have a heart attack and because women experience heart trouble differently than men, many times women ignore or don’t fully understand the symptoms.
Exercising, eating a heart-healthy diet and getting plenty of rest are paramount to keeping your heart healthy. Monitor your blood pressure and cholesterol levels and follow your physician’s advice for taking care of your heart.
Regular cardio exercises like walking, jogging, cycling or rowing can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. These fun activities also burn calories and along with a low-fat, high-nutrition diet, can help you to lose weight and keep it off.
The Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of the two.
That’s about 30 minutes a day, five days a week. If that’s more than you can do, start with 30 minutes a day, three days a week. As you progress, you can add more days or exercise longer, aim for 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity.
Remember if you are short on time it’s fine to break-up your workouts into six 10-minute sessions during a day. You’ll still get the same heart-health benefits.
Interval training provides some great benefits and may help you reach your goal weight quicker. Try combining alternate short bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity, for example, include short bursts of jogging or fast walking into your regular walks.
You can also add exercise to your daily activities with these tips.
• Take the stairs instead of an elevator.
• Walk or ride your bike to work or to do errands.
• March in place while watching television.
• Add weights to any exercise routine.
• Stand longer, sit for shorter periods of time.

Exercise For A Healthy Heart

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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.