Exercise for fitness regime of healthy heart

The most common phrase that a patient with heart disease quotes is that “I never thought it could happen to me.”
But the common mistake that most of them including those who do not have any heart problem till now make is not taking care of the fitness regime for the heart. The present day’s sedentary life-style seems to be the risk factors lying at the root of all heart problems. Fortunately we have the option to alter the situation and reduce the risk of getting heart problems.

The fitness of heart is directly related to daily exercise along with healthy diet, stress management. The physical activities in daily life are not only necessary for good health but also help to fight several heart disease and keeps heart specialist away from us. There are certain issues related to the exercise for heart fitness that needs to be clarified. Let us have a focus on some of F.A.Q.s

What are the benefits of physical activities for healthy heart?

Regular exercise helps strengthen our heart. Especially the aerobic exercises triggers the increase of heart rate for a considerable time period thus allowing more fresh oxygenated blood to circulate through the heart and helps it to become healthy. The benefits of regular exercise on heart are as stated below.

• Regular exercise helps lowering blood pressure
• Helps reducing stress, tension, anxiety and depression which often turn fatal for healthy heart.
• Exercise helps mobilizing excess fat and helps fat reduction which is one of the main reasons of all heart problems.
• Exercise helps decreasing of LDL (bad cholesterol) for heart and raises levels of HDL (good cholesterol)
• Regular exercise controls and prevents the diabetes development, another risk factor for heart problems.

Who needs to do regular exercise?

A common myth among people having non-sedentary life style is that they already have lots of physical activities throughout their daily routine life that is quite enough for maintaining healthy heart. So, they do not need to get engaged in regular exercise. But this is absolutely wrong perception.
Despite of getting enough exercise due non-sedentary job, still they does not get involved in sustained exercise routine that is needed for maintaining healthy heart.

How much exercise is good for heart?

The amount of exercise that is needed for keeping the heart in a healthy state depends on some specific health conditions of the heart. A person with healthy heart can do all sorts of normal exercise. But people with prior heart problems should select the fitness exercise program depending on the type of heart disease they are suffering from. The heart patients should avoid intense exercise.
A sustained exercise for 30 minutes every day or at-least 5 days a week is a general recommended fitness regime for healthy heart. The exercise timings can be slotted into manageable chunks of 15min, 20 min. etc.

Which exercises are best for keeping healthy heart?

Though any kind of sustained activity or exercises are good for heart but the aerobic exercises are the best which increases heart beat up-to moderate level and involves simultaneous rhythmic movement of large group of muscles like arms, legs, shoulder, stomach etc.
It should be kept in mind that the regular aerobic exercises should be associated with balanced carbohydrate, protein, fats, fruits and vegetable diet.
The aerobic exercises like swimming, cycling, dancing, walking, gardening, running etc. increases the blood pumping rate faster than normal, enabling the muscles to get more oxygen from the refreshing blood circulation, thus strengthen the cardiovascular muscles too.

Risk factors involved and how to get started?

Normal people should start regular exercise and can stretch the intensity of the exercise up-to the level they can tolerate without becoming short of breath. Heart patients should consult their doctor about the type of exercise that suits them best before starting any exercise program for fitness of heart. Sometimes the change in medication greatly affects the response to regular exercise. So, it is your doctor who can guide you about do’s and don’ts for your exercise routine.
A general process is to always warm up at the start of the exercise session and must end the session with some simple stretches in relax mode to cool down gradually
You can simply break the exercise timings into manageable chunks like a 5 to 10 minute morning or walk, 10 to 15 minute walk to your nearest grocery shop, 5 to 10 minute walk to your nearest bus stop or enjoy gardening.

Precaution or what to avoid?

Those who haven’t any heart problem can go up-to intense level of exercise in course of time, but those who already have heart problems should avoid intense activities like press-ups, lifting heavy weights, digging the garden, sudden stand up from floor including every exercise beyond their tolerance level as these can cause chest pains leading to serious consequences.
In case the exercise routine gets interrupted for few days due to unavoidable reasons, then it should be re-started at low level of activity.