10 Best Exercise For Your Heart: A Heart Strengthening Guide

The heart is a very crucial organ of our body as it pumps blood and facilitates the transport of oxygen and nutrients to every cell. Its pivotal function necessitates the maintenance of its health. To keep the heart healthy, exercise plays a very big role. By focusing on activities that strengthen the heart muscles, improve blood circulation, maintain blood pressure, and keep blood cholesterol levels in check, individuals can not only enhance their physical fitness but also reduce their risk of developing heart-related issues in the future.

Regular workout also helps to manage weight and thereby prevent any further damage to the heart. It also helps to regulate insulin resistance which keeps the arteries of the heart supple and avoids atherosclerosis. A strong heart can pump blood at its full capacity and prevent chances of stroke.

Let’s check out the exercises that can help hearts keep healthy and ways to keep track of our progress.

A] The Ultimate Exercises To Strengthen Your Heart

Various exercises help the heart to stay strong and perform better.

1. Aerobic Exercises

Aerobic exercise is a cardio workout with fast movements, where the heart rate increases and breathing is fast but you can still manage to talk to someone without difficulty. You should not feel exhausted while performing the activity. These exercises involve walking, jogging, swimming, dancing, climbing stairs, rowing, Zumba, brisk walking, cycling, playing racket games, or jumping ropes. The cardio for heart patients helps their heart to pump sufficient blood throughout the body. Adequate blood circulation maintains regular blood pressure and lowers blood sugar and cholesterol leading to a lower heart rate. There is no age limit to perform aerobic exercise. People with knee issues can perform low-impact cardio workouts like swimming or cycling.

2. Resistance Exercises (Strength Training)

Resistance training is also known as strength training where you use your weight as resistance and perform exercises. Strength training is usually used to change the body composition of a person. It helps to reduce the fat mass and increase muscle mass. People with high body fat should include resistance training in their workout for best results. People with android obesity have more fat deposition near the abdomen which directly affects heart health. Light exercise for heart patients like mild resistance training makes the heart muscles strong and improves the ejection fraction of the heart. You can perform wall exercises, high-intensity workouts, or core workouts for resistance training. Using light weights like dumbbells, and kettlebells, using weight machines, resistance bands are also included in resistance training.

3. Stretching Exercises

Stretching exercises increase body flexibility. It doesn’t help directly but it takes care of musculoskeletal health enabling performing the aerobics and strength training exercises pain-free. It helps to relieve cramps and prevent muscle tears and joint pain, maintains balance, and prevents falls. Stretching makes sure there is enough blood supply to the muscles while working out. Being flexible is an important part of resistance training and aerobic workout to prevent any muscle or bone injury. It includes basic stretches, yoga, tai chi, and pilates. Stretching exercises are a must in your exercise and fitness routine. It helps to maintain consistency with your workout routine without any injury breaks.

B] What Should Be The Ideal Routine For Healthy Heart Workouts?

We all have experienced it once in our lifetime that one fine day we decide to become healthy and start working out, but end up getting disappointed because of no results. We underestimate the importance of regular exercise and fitness routines.

Planning a workout schedule is very tricky especially if you are new to working out or not consistent with the workout. Only one kind of exercise will not give you the desired result. Combine exercises to strengthen your heart.

For the best result, you need to perform cardio workouts for 30 to 45 minutes at least five days a week. your cardio with strength training 45 – 60 minutes two days a week. Always start your workout with stretching sessions and end with a cool-down stretching session to prevent injury. The cardio workout helps to reduce fats and strength training helps to build lean muscle mass. You will start feeling light internally after 4 to 6 weeks. Significantly visible difference in inches or scale is seen after 6-8 weeks of workout. The people will notice the difference after 6 months of your consistent workout.

C] How To Track Your Progress?

Tracking your health and workout progress is essential to keep you motivated and achieve your fitness goals. Here are a few ways that you can use to track the progress of your proper fitness plan:

1. Use body measurements, scale, and body composition machine

The difference in body measurements like waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and upper arm circumference indicate progress. The weighing scale will show you the weight you have lost and the body composition machine will show the actual loss of fats and increase in lean muscle mass.

2. Track your heart rate

When you start the workout regime, during the initial days you will achieve your target heart rate soon, but as your fitness improves reaching your target heart rate is a little difficult. This shows your fitness level, the more time taken, the healthier the heart. The time taken for your heart rate to return to normal also indicates your heart health. The less time taken for your heart rate to return to normal, the healthier the heart. Brisk walking, dancing, and Zumba are some of the best exercises to increase heart rate is brisk walking.

3. Use fitness apps

Using fitness apps helps you track your workout, heart rate, and calories burnt. They provide you with the whole algorithm of your progress and also suggest improvement areas to focus on.

D] When You Need A Personal Trainer?

A personal trainer can provide guidance, support, and expertise needed to plan a perfect combination of workouts to achieve your health and fitness goals. A personal fitness trainer teaches you correct form and techniques that help to prevent any injury to the body. They create a customised workout plan according to your present health, comorbidities, flexibility, and targets. They can accurately track your progress and provide the much-needed motivation to stick to the routine and keep pushing you toward your goal. Working out alone can sometimes become very demotivating, but your trainer can help to keep up your interest in working out and remain consistent.

Conclusion

As seen above, a perfect combination of cardio workout and resistance training accompanied by stretching is the best exercise for your heart. Tracking your progress ensures you are on the correct path. Consistency is the key to achieving your health goals. But at the same time, it is important to listen to your body and avoid overdoing any workout or pushing too hard, as it can lead to injury or interfere with heart function. To ensure a correct and consistent workout, it is best to contact one of the best fitness trainers in your area.

Sudam Shelar

Sudam Shelar is a certified fitness expert and health coach, specializing in personalized training and nutritional guidance for optimal well-being. With a keen focus on dynamic workouts, corrective exercises, and tailored programs, he excels in muscle rehabilitation, personal training, and holistic wellness.