How Exercise Helps a Healthy Heart
20th Sep 19
Your heart is the centre of your fitness as a whole in a huge number of cases. Your heart health can tell you a lot about yourself, and if it’s not quite where it should be, you could be at a much higher risk of a wide range of health conditions. However, one excellent way to improve and maintain your heart health is through good, healthy regular exercise. There’s a huge range of ways you can do it, but without getting into all that, let’s take a look at some of the key ways it can help.
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Lower Blood Pressure
The first thing we’ll talk about when looking at exercise and the direct effect it has on your heart health is how it can aid in reducing blood pressure. It’s incredibly effective as long as it’s not too high to start with. Before we go into things, it’s vital to note now that if your blood pressure is already high, make sure you check with a doctor before you start. Also, do not substitute exercise in place of your medication.
Exercise is an awesome way to get your heart working and, as a result, increase your strength. That means that your heart is stronger and can pump blood around your body more effectively with every beat. There needs to be less beating and less strain put on it, helping to get that all-important BP level down to a reasonable level. Again it should be noted that your BP will rise during the exercise in the first place. It really is essential that you get the green light from a health professional first.
For a little more info, check out our article on blood pressure and exercise here.
Circulation & Oxygen Absorption
Next up is how much more efficient your circulation can be with improved heart health. It means that, like above, your heart can do things much easier due to increased strength. On top of that, your muscles are in better health in a lot of other areas too. That’s a great way to help ensure you’re getting all of the oxygen you need to keep things running smoothly.
Building up muscle in areas where you previously didn’t have much means getting more blood to those areas in general. So if you suffer from bad circulation, even light exercise is a great way to get that blood pumping and help reduce the risk of any issues surrounding it.
Weight Management
One of the more talked about advantages of improving your heart health with exercise comes from a better weight management system and the points above. In addition, exercise is proven to be a great way to help you burn calories, potentially on a daily basis (as well as improving your resting energy expenditure too).
This result is that your metabolism gets better, and so does your weight management. You’re burning calories, making it easier to get into a calorie deficit. If you’re overweight or have a high body fat percentage (which can put a larger strain on your heart’s workload), you can reduce the strain by losing some weight and preventing it from coming back on in the long run more than dieting alone could do. That’s an awesome thing to do for your heart health!
Stress Management
The last benefit that we’ll talk about that may not be as medical as the others are how your mind can improve. That has yet another improvement to your heart health, and just as directly too. It’s not uncommon to hear that stress is bad for our health. It has negative effects on all of the points above as well as other things too, and that is absolutely not something we need.
A remarkable effect of exercise on the heart is that it has an impressive impact on the brain too. As you exercise, it’s common to see all of the mental benefits that come with it, and one of those especially is stress management. It helps to physicalise a lot of mental stress and gives you a healthy outlet for it. That means you come out of it with less than you went in, and in the grand scheme of things, that can be incredibly important to your circulatory system, blood pressure, and just about everything else heart-related.
As a whole, there’s even more than that. Exercise is rarely a bad thing, and it’s always going to have benefits for your health, no matter what you enjoy doing. It doesn’t have to be training in a gym or even working out at home. Try getting outdoors, finding a new active hobby, or even walking more places instead of driving. There are tonnes of ways to do it, and if you can find one that you enjoy, you’re really into a winner. Your heart and your body as a whole will thank you for it.
Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.
If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.
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