Heart Disease: Exercise for a Healthy Heart

A sedentary (inactive) lifestyle is one of the top risk factors for heart disease. Fortunately, it's a risk factor that you can do something about. Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, has many benefits. It can:

• Strengthen your heart and cardiovascular system
• Improve your circulation and help your body use oxygen better
• Improve your symptoms of congestive heart failure
• Increase energy levels so you can do more activities without becoming tired or short of breath
• Increase endurance
• Lower blood pressure
• Improve muscle tone and strength
• Improve balance and joint flexibility
• Strengthen bones
• Help reduce body fat and help you reach and stay at a healthy weight
• Help reduce stress, tension, anxiety, and depression
• Boost self-image and self-esteem
• Improve sleep
• Make you feel more relaxed and rested
• Make you look fit and feel healthy

How Do I Get Started?

Always check with your doctor first before starting an exercise program. Your doctor can help you find a program that matches your level of fitness and physical condition. Here are some questions to ask:

• How much exercise can I do each day?
• How often can I exercise each week?
• What type of exercise should I do?
• What type of activities should I avoid?
• Should I take my medication(s) at a certain time around my exercise schedule?
• Do I have to take my pulse while exercising?

What Type of Exercise Is Best?

Exercise can be divided into two basic types:

• Cardiovascular or aerobic is steady physical activity using large muscle groups. This type of exercise strengthens the heart and lungs and improves the body's ability to use oxygen. Aerobic exercise has the most benefits for your heart. Over time, aerobic exercise can help your blood pressure and improve your breathing (since your heart won't have to work as hard during exercise).
• Strengthening exercises are repeated muscle contractions (tightening). They help tone muscles, improve strength, and increase your metabolism.

What Are Examples of Aerobic Exercises?

Aerobic exercises include: walking, jogging, jumping rope, bicycling, skiing, skating, rowing, and aerobics.

How Often Should I Exercise?

In general, to achieve maximum benefits, you should gradually work up to an aerobic session of at least  20 to 30 minutes, at least three to four times a week. Exercising every other day will help you start a regular aerobic exercise schedule. The American Heart Association recommends working up to exercising on most days of the week. While the more exercise you can do the better for your fitness, any amount of exercise is beneficial to your health.

What Should I Include in My Program?

Every exercise session should include a warm-up, a conditioning phase, and a cool-down.

• Warm-up. This helps your body adjust slowly from rest to exercise. A warm-up reduces the stress on your heart and muscles, slowly increases your breathing, circulation (heart rate) and body temperature. The best warm-up includes dynamic stretching (as compared to the “touch your toes” stretches you did in high school) and the beginning of the activity at a low intensity level.
• Conditioning. This follows the warm-up. During the conditioning phase, the benefits of exercise are gained and calories are burned. If you experience chest pain, significant breathlessness, or dizziness, you should stop exercising and let your doctor know about your symptoms.
• Cool-down. This is the last phase of your exercise session. It allows your body to gradually recover from the conditioning phase. Your heart rate and blood pressure will return to near resting values. Cool-down does not mean sit down! In fact, do not sit, stand still or lie down right after exercise. This may cause you to feel dizzy or lightheaded or have heart palpitations (fluttering in your chest). The best cool-down is to slowly decrease the intensity of your activity.