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Healthy Heart Tip: Working Out Your Heart

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK

Did you know that your heart is a muscular organ and beats about 100,000 times a day?

This varies depending on your level of fitness, but the bottom line is it has a BIG job to do. Although the cardiac muscle isn’t under voluntary control like the skeletal muscles in your body (you don’t have to tell your heart to beat!), it still requires working out.

Here Heart Research UK share some tips on how to get started working out your heart.

What exercise?

How do you start your day? Each day tends to continue as it starts i.e., if you get off A great way to work out your heart is to partake in some heart-pumping aerobic exercise, which is basically anything that gets your heart pumping faster. Lots of different activities fall into this type of workout such as brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming, playing tennis, and many fitness classes such as boxercise or Zumba. Resistance training also contributes to a healthy heart, including working out with free weights or on weight machines. You can even do hand weight exercises while sat at your desk.

How much?

Doctors recommend a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity, aerobic exercise per week. This could look like 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or maybe some longer sessions on fewer days. In addition to aerobic exercise, aim for two sessions of resistance training per week. If you don’t already take part in exercise, start small, as any exercise is better than none. You can gradually work up to the recommended amount.

The benefits

Regular exercise has the potential to lower our blood pressure and heart rate which reduces the risk of heart diseases. It can also reduce the risk of developing other conditions such as type 2 diabetes. A combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training can contribute to healthy cholesterol levels. Moving more is one of the best things you can do for your heart health.

To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of the Healthy Heart recipes from the website here

Or have a look through the Healthy Heart cookbook filled with recipes from top chefs, celebrities and food bloggers here

Heart Research UK
Proud to stand out from the crowd, Heart Research UK is the charity dedicated to your heart. They inspire and invest in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health for themselves. For over 50 years they have driven advancements in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease to benefit patients as soon as possible.