The heart is one of the major organs of our body and it becomes stronger and healthier if you lead a healthy and active lifestyle. If you are in your early thirties then it’s not too late to start a heart-strengthening workout routine. For heart-strengthening exercise, you don’t need to be a sportsperson all the time because a brisk walk for thirty minutes a day can improve your heart health, and make a big difference.
The heart is a muscle. When you lead an active lifestyle, your heart muscles get activated and do their job perfectly.
We all know the quote “Hard work pays off”. It’s really true for doing exercise also. Heart strengthening exercise shows a long-lasting effect on your body. People who used to live a sedentary lifestyle are at high risk of heart disease and stroke.
However, regular exercise not only takes care of Cardiac health, but also burns calories, reduces elevated blood pressure, lowers the bad cholesterol and LDL level, and increases HDL or good cholesterol level.
Here we’ll mention 6 significant exercises for conditioning your heart but before that, we would like to mention how much you should exercise and how often.
Try to do a minimum of 150 minutes a week of the moderate-high level of exercise and brisk walking. It means you have to walk 30 minutes a day for a minimum of 5 days a week. If you’re getting started, walk slowly, then gradually increase your walking speed.
Types of exercises you can do
Aerobic exercise or Cardio: Jogging, running, biking are a few common examples of Aerobic exercise. In this workout, you have to move fast enough to increase your heartbeat and breathe harder. However, you can still be able to speak with others while doing aerobic exercise.
Stretching: Stretching is considered a warm-up exercise. Your body will become more flexible by doing stretching regularly. Stretching should be done before doing a high-intensity workout to enhance flexibility. Initially stretch gently; it should not hurt your muscle.
Strength training: Strength training is commonly done by sportspersons, weight lifters, and boxers. However, you can use weights, resistance bands, or simply yoga to strengthen your heart. Do it 2-3 times a week. Don’t practice more than that
6 significant exercises for conditioning your heart
1. Walking
Yes, walking falls under the cardio. Brisk walking is considered one of the heart-strengthening exercises. Brisk walking means speed walking which is great for conditioning your heart muscles. Walking fast elevates your heart rate. Walking is very convenient for your joint muscles as a beginner. You can walk anywhere anytime. Here you need only a pair of walk-friendly shoes.
If you are at the office, take a short walk during your lunch break or at evening break. While waking you can listen to music, or podcasts to relax your mind.
2. Weight training
Building different muscles in your body will help your heart. Weight training will help you with building muscle mass and burning fat. Despite the fact that you can head out to the exercise center to prepare with loads, probably the best weight preparation happens when you utilize your own body weight. Things like push-ups, squats, or even draw-ups all assist you with building muscle and add to bone and heart wellbeing.
3. Swimming
Swimming is just not a fun game for summer, It is also a good exercise. It falls under aerobics. Taking swimming classes not only maintains body weight but also improves your heart muscle. It is because swimming is a full-body workout. Swimming is not boring, in fact, most people find it highly interesting. Swimming is easy for your knee joints and allows you to move your body in multiple directions without causing so much pain.
4. Interval training
Interval training is the combination of short bursts of high-intensity workouts and longer periods of mild exercise for strengthening all over body muscle. It is an approach of ultimate exercise which impacts your full body within a short period of time. For example, interval training is the average of one minute of running and walking for three minutes. This combination of exercise continuously raises and lowers the heart rate which eventually burns calories and improves vasodilation of blood vessels.
5. Cycling
Hopping on your bicycle can accomplish something beyond getting you starting with one spot then onto the next. Cycling has been displayed to assist with decreasing the gamble of coronary illness. It involves the enormous muscles in your legs, which assist with raising your pulse. Reward: Cycling has even been displayed to work on your psychological wellness.
6. Yoga
Yoga is very good for your heart health. Doing yoga will strengthen your muscles and tone your body. Some short forms of yoga are really beneficial for your cardiac muscle; it improves heart pumping rate as well as vasodilation which eventually reduces your blood pressure level.
Apart from that, you can add isometric exercises to your workout routine. Cardiologists recommend isometric exercises for high blood pressure patients because it effectively regulates elevated blood pressure.