Staying active is a primary ingredient for a healthy heart. Exercise strengthens your cardiovascular muscles, supports a healthy weight and manages cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure. Incorporating various forms of exercise benefits your cardiovascular health. It is important to consider the effects of each type of exercise, and how to incorporate a combination into your daily life.
Aerobic Exercise
Elevates your heart rate and gets the blood pumping around the body – the role of a strong and healthy heart. Aerobic exercise promotes circulation, which effectively lowers blood pressure. Aim to incorporate 20 minutes of aerobic exercise per day, try fast walking, running, swimming, playing tennis, skipping, boxing or cardio-Pilates.
Try this workout – Total Body Combo
Strength Training
Strength and resistance training promotes a healthy fat to muscle ratio, reducing the risk of heart disease. Strength training supports your metabolism to burn energy throughout the day and lower bad cholesterol. Try Pilates with a mix of small equipment including resistance bands, swiss ball, hand weights and ankle weights to fatigue the muscles and build strength and tone.
Try this workout – Total Body Combo 5
Stretching
While not directly impacting your heart health, stretching enables your body to recover between aerobic and strength exercises, to move efficiently, free of pain. The key driver to stretching is to be able to perform various types of exercise your body needs to stay fit and healthy. When we neglect active recovery, our joints and muscles tighten and cramp, limiting our ability to perform and increasing the risk of injuries.
Try this workout – Mini Stretch 3
