Everyone knows that regular physical activity can strengthen your muscles and improve your endurance. But your heart, a muscle, can also benefit from physical activity. In fact, exercise helps protect against heart disease and reduces symptoms in people who already have heart disease. Regular physical activity can lower triglycerides and help raise HDL cholesterol. When it results in weight loss, physical activity can also play a key role in managing the metabolic syndrome and reducing LDL cholesterol. Moreover, it reduces the risk of other chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure -- risk factors for coronary heart disease -- as well as osteoporosis and some cancers. Physical activity is an integral part of an overall healthy lifestyle, including a balanced diet and not smoking, that can lower your risk of heart disease. Most importantly, it improves aerobic capacity (the body's ability to take in and use oxygen during exercise), and it increases muscular strength. Both aerobic exercise and resistance training promote physical fitness and benefit your heart and overall health.
To learn more about these and other types of exercise, See details the next page. Physical exercise can improve more than just heart health and overall strength and endurance. It also has a positive effect on oxygen delivery, ease of movement, and an improved sense of well being. Exercise In-Depth: Learn how increased fitness can reduce the risk of many chronic illnesses, and what to consider when starting an exercise program. How Exercise Works: Take a detailed look at the way your body’s responses help your muscles work, and how training can enhance your responses. Exercise to Treat Coronary Heart Disease: Explore the ways that physical activity makes the heart stronger, which helps reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. How to Exercise During Pregnancy: PrimeBoosts.com Get tips and guidelines for safe and effective workouts for expectant mothers. First, aerobic exercise, which uses large muscle groups, forces the heart and lungs to work harder to meet the muscles' demand for oxygen. These activities involve regular, repeated activity performed at a pace intense enough to quicken your breathing and get your heart pumping faster than usual.
Over time, the heart and other muscles become more efficient at using oxygen and can work harder and longer using less energy. Ultimately, this improves cardiovascular fitness, resulting in a decreased resting heart rate and decreased blood pressure. This also makes routine daily activities, such as running around after a busy toddler or bringing groceries in from the car, easier and less fatiguing. Examples of aerobic exercise include brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, and cross-country skiing. Second, resistance training, such as lifting weights, develops muscular strength and size. The weights involved are usually handheld or built into exercise equipment, but a similar effect can be achieved by stretching large rubber bands or even lifting objects such as heavy books. Resistance training performed two to three times a week can improve muscular strength and endurance. To build muscle strength, select 8 to 10 different strength-building exercises that use the major muscles, and perform 8 to 15 repetitions of each exercise for ticavisiontv.com each isolated muscle.
Aerobic exercise appears to benefit the heart the most, improving aerobic capacity and significantly burning calories, which aids weight loss. But resistance training increases lean body mass, which improves strength and balance, making it easier to perform aerobic exercises. Resistance training also speeds up metabolism. Stretching and flexibility exercises improve range of motion, making it easier to move muscles and joints, preventing injury while performing aerobic activities and resistance training. Regular exercise brings not only physical, but also mental benefits. See the next page to learn the effects of exercise on body and mind. In addition, studies have indicated that people who participate in regular physical activity tend to have a lower body mass and adopt healthier lifestyle habits, including quitting smoking and choosing healthier foods. And not to be overlooked, exercise can help alleviate stress and contribute to a positive attitude. Many people report that a regular program of physical activity brings an improvement in self-esteem and self-image along with an improvement in physical appearance.