Exercising and being physically active is a massive factor which contributes towards good heart health. It’s one of the most effective ways of strengthening your heart muscle, controlling your weight. It also helps reduce the risk of artery damage from high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are factors that can lead to cardiovascular disease, heart attack, or stroke.
Examples of heart healthy exercises to improve your heart health and strengthen your heart muscle include brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, playing tennis, dancing, and skipping. These are all examples of aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise improves circulation which lowers blood pressure and helps heart function. It also reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, and if you have diabetes, helps regulate blood sugars. Aerobic exercise should be performed at least 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week.
In addition to aerobic exercise you should also build resistance training (strength work) into your routine. This type of exercise helps to reduce body fat and convert it into lean muscle mass. The combination of aerobic exercise and resistance work can help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol. As a rule, 2 non consecutive days per week of resistance training is ideal.
Examples of resistance training include free weight exercises, using weight machines, resistance bands, or body resistance (e.g., push ups and pull ups).
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