Since the heart is an organ made up of muscles, you’d better believe exercise can make it stronger.
In fact, working out is one of the best ways to prevent heart disease, the leading cause of death in women. Exercise not only strengths the heart muscles, themselves, but it also reduces other risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol and obesity.
To keep your heart in good shape, YMCA Wellness Associate Brad Martens says there are four important areas to focus your workouts on every week:
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Cardiovascular Fitness: Work out for at least 30 minutes to improve your body’s ability to deliver oxygen-rich blood to your muscles, including your heart. Swimming, running, cycling and even intense chores – like vacuuming and gardening – qualify as cardiovascular workouts.
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Muscle strength: Try bench presses, squats, weight training and workout programs like Body Pump to increase the amount of force your muscles can exert against a heavy resistance.
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Muscular endurance: Push-ups, crunches, Pilates and several repetitions with light weights will increase your muscles’ abilities to repeat movements for an extended period of time. Try to do some kind of weight training two to three times per-week for each muscle group.
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Flexibility: Often the most neglected area of fitness, flexibility is actually very important for your body – and it’s a workout you can do anywhere, including at your desk. Stretching and yoga are among flexibility exercises that will help joints and muscles to reach through their full ranges of motion.
Martens said there are some uncontrollable factors that can increase your risk of heart disease, such as age, race and heredity. Risk increases with age, and Latinos and blacks are at a higher risk.
Even when those factors increase your risk, however, you have the ability to manage controllable factors:
- Don’t smoke. It doubles your risk of having a heart attack.
- Keep your cholesterol below 200 (less than 100 mg/dL for your LDL or “bad” cholesterol, and at least 60 mg/dL for your HDL “good” cholesterol).
- Aim for a blood pressure of less than 120 over 80 mm Hg.
- Maintain a healthy weight, with a Body Mass Index of 18.5 to 24.9.
- Don’t drink alcohol excessively.
- Stay physically active.