Heart Beats Better With Regular Workouts!
Do you know that your heart acts as a human pump machine and is no bigger than the size of your fist? It is a muscular organ that works tirelessly to perform the important function of pumping blood in your body. The heart muscle tissues are also known as cardiac tissues.
Cardiologists feel that the secret of keeping your heart strong and healthy is to lead an active life. As the experts say, it is never too late to start working out. Brisk walking, jogging, and cycling are some of the exercises you can do every day. Even a little physical effort can make a huge difference and keep heart problems at bay.
Exercise for Heart and Lungs
- Aerobic Cardio Exercise: Cycling, fast-walking, running, and jogging can increase your heart rate and make you move faster. You can also choose simple activities like walking and swimming.
- Stretching Exercise: Gain flexibility by resorting to gentle stretching movements. Stretching is considered as a warm-up activity before performing the exercises.
- Weight Exercise: By using resistance bands, weights, and certain yoga poses, you can strengthen your muscles and improve heart health.
- Diaphragmatic Breathing: It is also known as belly breathing. It involves engaging the diaphragm during the breathing process.
- Pout-lips Breathing: When you do pursed-lips slow breathing, it helps keep the airways open for a longer time. This boosts the lungs to function better.
Doctors often advice regular exercise for heart disease so that patients can burn those extra calories, lower blood pressure and reduce the bad cholesterol in their bodies.
Best Cardio for Heart Health
Exercising is one of the best methods to fortify the heart and keep it 100% healthy. According to the American Heart Association experts, people are advised to perform at least 150 minutes of simple to vigorous aerobic exercises every week. Walking, lifting weights, alternating between high intensity and low-intensity training, playing tennis, jumping rope, skiing, rowing, and swimming can get your heart racing in the right direction.
Heart Healthy Exercises for Seniors
Exercises and mild physical workouts can boost senior citizens health condition. Four primary types of exercises can be followed by older adults.
- Aerobic workout – It includes fast walking, mild jogging, cycling, dancing and swimming a few laps.
- Weights – For strong muscle power, you can do weight lifting or use a resistance band to build heart strength
- Balancing – Exercises such as walking on a piece of log without falling off to either side and rock the boat training that involves lifting each leg and maintaining the pose for 30 seconds
- Stretching – Increase your fitness and flexibility by stretching your muscles such as triceps stretch and spinal twist stretches.
If you are an elderly citizen, you need to check with your heart specialist or healthcare provider before commencing to do heart healthy exercises.
Heart Exercise Yoga
Yoga workouts and breathing exercises are highly recommended for optimum heart health. Doing yoga increases your flexibility and boosts muscle power so that your body feels strong and rejuvenated. Some postures involve deep breathing exercises that are beneficial for your respiratory system.
Two popular yoga exercises include:
- Anjali Mudra – You can also term it as 'namaste' pose that is performed sitting cross-legged on your yoga mat and bringing your palms together with fingers touching the chest (heart chakra). You then have to close your eyes and focus on your breathing (slow inhalation and exhalation).
- The Warrior Pose – It involves taking up the mountain posture that is done by stretching of your leg backward and the other leg standing forward (knee position at ninety degrees) and hands stretching high above the head. It is also known as the 'veerabhadrasana' pose.
Which is the best exercise for the heart?
The CDC or the Center for Disease Control suggests that every grown-up should invest at least 2 to 3 hours doing various forms of aerobic exercises per week. Brisk walking is one of the best forms of aerobic exercise for the heart.
How can I strengthen my heart naturally?
You can strengthen your heart by eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruits daily. Controlling your blood pressure and cutting back on oily, sugary, and refined foodstuff can also keep your heart healthy. Using less amount of salt in your food and working out daily can be added to the list.
Why exercise is good for my heart?
Workouts and physical exercises help strengthen the muscles of your body. The heart muscle starts working very efficiently and pumps blood properly throughout your body. Exercise lowers the risk of heart ailments and also improves your mood.
Can exercise help a weak heart?
When you exercise, it helps to repair the muscle damage in a heart patient. By working out every day, you can grow new blood vessels and muscle cells.