The benefits of a healthy heart
From the soles of your feet to the hair on your head, your heart is the engine that pumps fuel to every functional component of your body. Improving your circulation will ensure that your entire body receives the blood, nutrients, oxygen, and hormones it needs to function optimally. The health and fitness of your cardiovascular system (heart and lungs) help provide your body with the nutrition it needs to fight disease, manage a healthy weight, and maintain homeostasis (optimal stability). It also decreases stress, helps prevent diabetes, relieves fatigue, stabilizes sleep patterns, reduces inflammation in the body, and improves brain performance!
aerobic conditioning
Aerobic conditioning is when an athlete strengthens the ability of their heart and lungs to pump blood and oxygen throughout the body. This improvement to their cardiovascular system allows them to exercise more efficiently and for a longer period of time by allowing the heart to pump more blood per beat and increasing the size of the blood vessels (reducing blood pressure). It also enlarges the lungs, so you can inhale and distribute more oxygen into the blood.
choose an exercise
The easiest exercises for aerobic conditioning are: walking, running, jumping, yoga/Pilates, shadow boxing, and dancing because you don’t need anything more than your body and a little space. They are followed by those who need a basic tool: the bicycle, the jump rope and the farmer’s walk. Lastly, there are those who need uncommon gear: rowing, swimming, battle ropes, sledding, and hitting a punching bag.
Get to work!
Once you’ve chosen an exercise, it’s time to get to work! (Warm up before your main exercise to increase circulation and prevent injury; jogging in place or doing jumping jacks is a good place to start. And don’t forget to cool down, too! All you have to do is get outside to walk.) Keep your body guessing by changing the exercise you do every two weeks, this allows you to maximize the benefit you receive by challenging yourself in different ways.
General guidelines suggest 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week divided into 30- to 60-minute workouts per day; with a maximum of 300 minutes per week. If you haven’t exercised recently, then it’s best to start slow and gradually increase the length of your workouts; going too hard is a surefire way to insult yourself.
Taking Things to the Next Level (Hardcore Health Fanatics Only!)
For those of you looking to up your heart health game and willing to put in a little more work, this is a good place to start. Optimal growth with aerobic conditioning occurs when you exercise near your personal anaerobic threshold (usually around 85% of your maximum heart rate). So, invest in a heart monitor, push yourself as hard as you can, see where your heart rate peaks, and then exercise at an intensity that’s 80-90% of your maximum heart rate.
In conclusion
A healthy heart is the foundation of a healthy life because it is the first step in the functioning of our organs and muscles. Aerobic conditioning is the process of improving the health of our heart and lungs through exercise. With a strong heart, you use less energy to do the things you need to do, so you have more energy to do the things you want to do. However, exercise is not the only aspect of maintaining a healthy heart, diet and sleep play a role too!