I’m a Cardiologist. Try These 6 Heart-Boosting Activities

Regular exercise plays a critical role in keeping your heart healthy and lowering your risk for life-threatening conditions, including heart attack, heart disease and stroke.

Health experts urge adults to spend at least 150 minutes per week doing some form of moderate-intensity aerobic activity. You can cut that time in half if you prefer a vigorous workout pace. Ideally, those minutes will spread throughout the week – 30 minutes a day, four or five times weekly.

Meeting this goal provides many benefits, including:

• Lower blood pressure
• Lowering risk of diabetes
• Weight management
• Stress reduction
• More efficient circulatory system
• Improved cholesterol levels

There are many options available to get you off the couch and moving your body. Find an activity that matches your interests and avoid those you don’t like. If you hate running, for example, try swimming or biking. The more enjoyment you get out of your exercise, the more likely you are to continue it.

You can also consider adding a social element to keep you motivated. Find a family member, friend, or coworker to be your exercise partner. Along with social interaction, you can work to keep each other accountable and on schedule with your exercise plans.

Let’s look at several activities and why they may be right for you.

1. Brisk Walking: This is the simplest way to help your heart, particularly if you have been living a sedentary life for a while. It’s a relatively low-impact option that you can do essentially anywhere. Take a daily walk around your neighborhood, a local park, shopping mall or hiking trail. But you’ll need more than a slow, ambling pace. You’ll know you’ve hit a moderate pace when you can still carry on a conversation, but with some difficulty because you are winded.
2. Jogging or Running: Kick your exercise up a notch by picking up the pace until you are jogging or running. This is one of the most popular options in the nation, enjoyed by more than 50 million Americans. Keep in mind, though, that this is a high-impact activity that can be harder on your body. Lower your injury risks by gradually increasing your distance and wearing proper shoes. You can include high intensity interval training (HIIT) using short, intense bursts of activity followed by brief periods of rest or lower-intensity exercise. For example, you can run for a minute, followed by 30 seconds of walking.  
3. Biking: This is a great option if you want to cover more ground or spend time outdoors. You won’t burn as many calories as you will by running, but biking has the added benefit of being lower impact – making it easier on your joints and muscles.
4. Swimming: This is another low-impact option, and it requires nothing more than a swimsuit, goggles (if you prefer) and a body of clean water. Swimming offers a workout for your entire body, while also helping your body learn to use oxygen more efficiently. It’s also a great option for people with arthritis and other chronic conditions.
5. Resistance/strength training: You may not think of weightlifting as a heart-healthy exercise. But building muscle mass has several benefits, including stronger arms and legs, which lightens the load on your heart. There’s also a lot of variety with these exercises, which can be done with weights, resistance bands, cables or even your own body weight.
6. Tennis or Pickleball: If you’d like to inject a bit of competition into your exercise plan, both of these sports offer a great workout opportunity – particularly when playing the singles version. Pickleball has become one the fastest-growing sports in the U.S., so you should have no trouble finding a court. But be sure to lower your injury risk by properly warming up before you begin a match.

A Word About Intensity

Before you jump into any of these activities, go in with a plan to start slow and give your body time to adjust. This is particularly important if you haven’t exercised in a while.

If you feel any unusual discomfort or if you have any concerns about your health, talk with your doctor before launching your exercise plan.

This content is not AI generated.