4 Top Exercises to Keep Your Heart Healthy

Keeping fit and healthy helps your body to fight off illnesses and infections, as well as helping to prolong your life. Your heart is your most vital muscle, so you should try to be regularly active and choose exercises that strengthen your heart. A powerful statistic that underlines this importance is that people who do not exercise are twice as likely to get heart disease, compared to those who lead active lives.

To give your heart a health boost, these exercises are some of the best ones to try and incorporate into your regular routine:

Running

Cardio exercises are exercises where you are being active enough to increase your heart rate and they also make you breathe harder, and running is one of the most effective types of cardio. You do not necessarily need to be running fast, just fast enough to make sure your heart rate is elevated. Running on a treadmill will give you the same benefits to strengthen your heart and it is also a good exercise for weight loss.

Cycling

Cycling is another really good cardio exercise that can raise your heart rate as well as strengthen your leg muscles. Running is a high impact exercise, so if you want to protect your joints like your hips, knees and ankles, cycling may be a better option as it puts less stress on your joints. If you do not feel confident going on the road on a bike, you can use an exercise bike as this will give the same effect from the comfort of your own home.

Stretching/yoga

Doing stretching exercises such as yoga is another way to strengthen your heart by lowering blood pressure. In fact, yoga is often recommended by doctors for people who have heart problems, such as heart disease. The more challenging the stretches are, the more health gains you will get. Studies also show that this type of exercise can help to reduce stress and anxiety. You can also use things such as resistance bands to strengthen the intensity of your workout.

Weight training

By building more muscle mass around your body, you provide more muscular support to your heart. Weight training comes in many different forms, so don’t worry, you are not expected to benchpress the equivalent of your own body weight

Using your own body weight is one of the best ways to build muscle, which involves doing activities such as press-ups, squats and sit-ups. You can also use dumbbells of whichever size/weight you feel most comfortable with. Regularly doing a routine at home which includes these exercises and bicep curls will help you to keep your body and heart healthier.

The good news is that you can do all of these types of exercises from your own home. Fit4Home supplies all of the equipment you need to get started on a regular exercise pattern that will strengthen your heart and improve your all-round fitness.

Shop at Fit4Home for everything you need for a healthier, more active life.