Physical Activity and Your Heart

The heart holds a place of honour in the narrative of human evolution. It’s referred as the seat of all human emotions and plays a key role in the normal functioning of the human body. The heart is nothing but a muscular pump, approximately the size of your clenched fist, which will remarkably beat over three billion times during your lifespan.  How well your heart functions will affect the functions of all your other body organs.  The heart circulates blood around constantly, providing the body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to keep functioning, and removing waste products such as carbon dioxide, which would otherwise accumulate in the body and cause a number of problems.  In wellness circles, the ability of the heart to perform these roles effectively is known as cardiovascular fitness. The heart, being a muscle, responds to exercise just like any other muscle, by becoming stronger and more efficient. Cardiovascular exercises, such as walking or jogging, help to increase the physical capacity of the heart.

 

 Health Benefits of Exercise 

§ Regular exercise helps your heart muscle become more efficient in pumping blood throughout your body. This means that the heart pushes out more blood with each beat, allowing it to beat slower and keep your blood pressure under control.

§ Physical activity allows better blood flow in the small blood vessels around your heart. It helps your body to make more branches and connections between blood vessels, providing other routes for your blood to travel if the usual path is blocked by fatty deposits.

§ Exercise increases your levels of HDL, the "good" cholesterol that lowers the risk of heart disease by flushing the artery-clogging LDL or "bad" cholesterol out of your system.

§ Along with lowering your risk for heart disease, exercise helps in weight loss, improves your mood, lowers your risk for some types of cancer and improves your balance.

§ Exercise reduces your risk of osteoporosis by increasing your bone mass, improves your energy and helps you sleep better. 

  Measuring Exercise Intensity

Exercise intensity is the amount of physical power that the body uses when performing an activity. This term is most often used to describe aerobic activity. Any activity that makes your heart beat faster, such as walking or running, is aerobic exercise. There are two basic ways to measure exercise intensity:

• Exercise intensity is a subjective measure of how hard physical activity feels to you while you're doing it. Your perceived level of exertion may be different from what someone else feels doing the same exercise. For example, what feels to you like a hard run can feel like an easy jog to someone who's more fit.
• Your heart rate offers a more objective way to measure your exercise intensity. In general, the higher your heart rate during physical activity, the higher the intensity. Studies show that your perceived exertion correlates well with your heart rate.

• If you can carry on a conversation in brief sentences, you’re probably in the moderate-intensity range. You’ll be breathing faster, developing a light sweat and feeling some strain in your muscles. If you're working at a vigorous intensity, you won’t be able to say more than a few words without catching your breath.

NOTE: Always seek professional advice if you haven't exercised in a long time or if you have a history of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, dizziness, or exercise-related pain. This will ensure you get and exercise routine that's right for you.