Exercises to Keep Your Heart Healthy

Having a healthy heart is central to overall good health, and by embracing an active lifestyle, you are one major step toward a healthy heart. Incorporating regular exercise into your routine has several benefits to health and wellness, including reducing the risk of heart disease, managing your weight, lowering blood pressure and so much more.

Heart Benefits of Exercise

Similar to how exercise strengthens other muscles in the body, it also helps your heart muscle become more efficient. Some of the heart benefits of exercise include:

• Lowers blood pressure
• Strengthens the muscles, including the heart muscle
• Improves blood flow
• Decreases the risk of heart disease
• Controls weight
• Reduces inflammation
• Lowers stress

The American Heart Association recommends that a person gets at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity. 

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise, also known as cardio, is any rhythmic exercise that raises your heart rate and improves the function of your heart, lungs and circulatory system. Some of the most common cardiovascular exercises include:

• Speed walking
• Running
• Burpees
• Swimming
• Cycling 

The benefits of aerobic exercise include:

• Improves blood volume, distribution and delivery to muscles
• Improves cardiovascular efficiency
• Increases the amount of blood pumped from the ventricle during each contraction of the heart
• Decreases resting heart rate

Resistance Training

If cardio is not your exercise of choice, resistance training may attract you. Resistance training is a type of exercise that causes the muscles to contract against an external resistance. This form of exercise is meant to increase strength, power and endurance. According to the American Heart Association, a well-rounded strength-training program provides the following benefits: 

• Increased strength of bones, muscles and connective tissues
• Increased muscle mass
• Lower risk of injury
• Better quality of life

According to a study conducted by Iowa State University, “lifting weights for less than an hour a week may reduce your risk for a heart attack or stroke by 40 to 70 percent.”  

ReEnvisionMD for Medically Supervised Weight Loss

At ReEnvisionMD, we treat the patient as a whole and believe that prevention is the key component to staying happy and healthy. With extensive training in internal medicine, nutrition and exercise, our staff is devoted to providing quality healthcare to our patients and are dedicated to helping you achieve your optimal health and wellness. To get started with ReEnvisionMD’s Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program, click here to request an appointment, or call (855) 201-8814.