Guest Post – Barbara Woodberry, Top Five Exercises For A Healthy Heart

Share Button

womantwistingEveryone knows the importance of burning calories when it comes to dieting but did you know that regular exercise is also important for your heart? Studies have shown that those who partake in regular exercise have a lower risk of heart disease, autoimmune diseases, obesity, diabetes, and even muscular dystrophy.

While the following exercises are known for their association with weight loss, they can also be good for improving your hearts health. They can therefore allow you to live a longer, and hopefully healthier, life.

Lap Swimming

Simply swimming laps is an exercise that can be both fun and good for your heart. By swimming laps in a standard-size swimming pool for roughly 30 minutes 4-5 times per week, you can lower your risk of heart disease by 30-40%.

This is because swimming works all of your muscles at the same time, including the muscles found in both your heart and lungs. Swimming is one of the most productive forms of exercise and requires your entire body to work in unison.

familybikeridetogetherBiking

While swimming is usually viewed as the best exercise for heart health, biking comes in at a close second. Biking, at any speed, increases your lung capacity, improves your heart health, and can also allow you to build some serious leg muscle.

Studies have shown that just 20-30 minutes of biking each day, even if it’s just around the block, will significantly improve your health.

Uphill Walking

While everyone knows that walking is good for them, it’s the uphill version that’s ideal for your health. Uphill walking puts significantly more strain on your leg muscles, lungs, and heart. It forces you to take deep, shallow breaths and it makes your heart beat roughly 50% faster than usual.

Like biking, those who partake in uphill walking for 20-30 minutes each day will reap the serious benefits of having both a stronger heart and a significantly lower risk of heart disease.

Interval Training

Interval training stresses multiple parts of your body within a short period of time. By changing between different exercises and putting your body under different types of stress, your muscles and organs learn to quickly adapt.

Interval training is good for both your heart and your lungs because it requires your body to control its heart beat and breathing in order to more efficiently supply your muscles with oxygen.

Additionally, by switching between different types of exercise before any individual muscle group is worn out, most people find that they end up being able to work out for longer.

Yoga

Finally, although yoga is popular for its ability to make you more flexible, it also happens to be great for your heart. Yoga trains your body to become more patient and to use its resources as efficiently as possible.

Instead of consuming large amounts of oxygen and sporadically sending it all over your body, yoga teaches your heart to provide more oxygen to the specific muscles you are using at any given moment.

There’s also the small matter of yogas effect on stress levels. Those who practice yoga on a regular basis tend to find themselves significantly less tense. And as most people are aware, lowering your stress levels can also have serious health benefits.

– The article is contributed by Barbara Woodberry, a renowned guest blog writer who writes about Health and Lifestyle. She is also the Editor for magazinesubscriptions.com, looking for good deals on magazine subscriptions, please check out her site.