Heart Happy :: Fitness :: Cardio Exercise

Heart Happy
by author Tanya Rouble

Place your hand in the middle of your chest. Sit very still and be quiet. Can you feel that? The steady yet tireless beat of your heart. From the moment you are born until your last moment here on earth, your heart will work continuously without ever pausing to rest. On average, it will beat more than two-and-a-half billion times over the course of your life. It is an important and intricate piece of the human puzzle–yet often ignored, neglected and taken for granted. Perhaps it is time to take notice of this vital part of your machinery and learn how to keep it in optimal working condition.

Use It or Lose It

Your heart must be challenged on a regular basis. It is a muscle and, like any other muscle in the body, the more it is used, the stronger it becomes. And, also like other muscles, a stronger heart will also be more efficient at doing its job. Cardiovascular exercise or aerobic exercise (this does not mean aerobic classes only) is the best type of movement to ensure you keep your heart healthy and strong. This type of activity is rhythmic, repetitive, uses large muscle groups such as those in your legs, and challenges the circulatory system by increasing blood flow to the muscles. Some examples include walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing, stair-climbing, cross-country skiing, hiking and inline skating.

A Quick Anatomy Lesson

When your body is asked to move for an extended period of time, your muscles require large amounts of oxygen to keep them moving. Your blood carries the oxygen, brought in by your lungs, to the moving muscles. Your heart is the "motor" behind this system. As the demand for oxygen increases, it beats faster to circulate blood more quickly. When you frequently challenge your heart in this way, you increase cardiovascular fitness and build a stronger, more efficient heart.

It is recommended to engage in cardiovascular exercise daily or almost daily for 20 to 60 minutes in total. The debate continues as to whether this amount of time needs to be done all at once or if it can be broken into shorter intervals and added up over the course of the day. Recent research shows that smaller increments of activity, such as three 10-minute bouts, has great benefit in the grand scheme of things and can help to decrease the chances of heart disease and related health conditions. It is important to gear your cardiovascular routine toward what is ideal for your lifestyle, time availability and personal abilities. If you are unable to move for 30 minutes at a time, then smaller amounts of time would be acceptable for you. This is one of those areas in life where a little bit is better than nothing at all.

Keep Things Well-Rounded

Cardiovascular exercise is a very important form of movement to promote heart health, but it shouldn’t be your only form of exercise. A healthy heart is ideal, but what good is it if the rest of the "machine" isn’t in optimal working order? To keep things well rounded, your fitness strategy should also include strength-building exercises and movements that promote flexibility. When your muscles are strong, you are able to push, pull and carry with greater ease. You are also less likely to become over-tired or injured when performing tasks of daily living such as getting out of a car, rising from the floor or reaching under furniture for a lost treasure.

The Big Picture

1 2

Next Page >>>

Tanya Rouble is a certified personal trainer and fitness instructor with more than nine years of experience. She is the founder of several community-based exercise programs and works closely with other health-care professionals and the public to promote the benefits of regular exercise. She lives in Ridgeway, Ont. E-mail: rouble2@sprint.ca. Web: troublefit.com

Source: alive #244, February 2003

Nine Tips for Whole-Hearted Health
Our hearts, in a tireless and endless effort, work to circulate blood throughout our body. But in return we tend to often neglect and abuse our hearts, with heart disease being the number one cause of death in Canada..

Exercise Your Heart Safely
The major killer in North America today is heart disease, even though it is preventable with proper nutrition and regular exercise.

Supplements And Herbs For A Healthy Heart
Heart disease statistics could make one's blood run cold--clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes are responsible for almost 40 per cent of North American deaths.

Catch of the Day Keeps Heart Failure Away
When women think of their health, they worry about breast cancer and osteoporosis--not heart disease. Heart disease is an issue for their grandfathers, fathers and husbands.

Prevent Heart Deterioration With Supplements
Ask yourself, "What is the one health challenge that most Canadians will face?" The answer is always heart disease. Heart disease is the most likely condition to shorten lifespan and affect quality of lif.

Whole Foods for Heart Health
Be your own valentine! As you think of ways to please your sweetheart, think of your own heart too. How healthy is it? We have to take this question seriously, since heart problems just keep on increasing in our country. I have checked many sources to come up with these heart-friendly recipes.

Hard on the Heart
The idea that too much animal fat and a high cholesterol level are dangerous to our hearts and blood vessels is nothing but a myth, according to Swedi.

Triathlon
In reality, most people are quite capable of achieving the Ironman distance if they're willing to put in between 12 to 20 hours of training a week and have the discipline to follow the training regimen!

Skip It!
You don't have to join a gym or invest in sophisticated exercise equipment to stay fit. You don't even have to worry about staying fit while you're travelling.

Your Venous System
The cardiovascular system consists of the heart, arteries and veins working in synchronicity. Taking good care of your heart is common sense. Plenty has been written on keeping arteries clear, but a system is only as strong as its weakest link. Most people don't give their venous system a second thought until it's too late..

Herbs for Your Heart
It's easy to forget about the heart, as it does its job automaticall.

Kick Up Your Heels
Take a turn around the floor with ballroom dancingBallroom dancing is fun for all ages and will keep you fit as a fiddle throughout life. Historically, dance has always been with us.

On Track with Cross-Country Skiing
Gliding into winter is easy with this low-impact sportThe quiet swish swish of skis over snow is one of the supreme joys of winter.

Aerobic Exercise for Life
If someone told you that there was a way for you to have more energy, be more productive, sleep better, live longer and maintain emotional well-being, would you be interested? Who wouldn't be, right? It almost sounds too good to be true. You may think, "Okay, what's the catch?" Actually, there is no catch.

Hearts Love Herbs
You can't think about heart herbs, especially during the month of February, without thinking of heartsease, the little three-coloured wild pansy (Viola tricolor).

Heart Problems?
Homeopathy has an excellent history of use in acute and chronic heart ailments. A man has his first heart attack. In the emergency department, the physician observes his overwhelming fear of impending death and gives him two pellets of homeopathic Aconitum under his tongue.

Angina
Bypass surgery is five to 10 times more likely to kill you than save you. Angina is more than just chest pain. The symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack, albeit less severe, and they usually end in one to 10 minutes.

Understanding the Cardiovascular System
To understand your cardiovascular system, with its hardworking heart and complex support network of arteries, veins and capillaries, think of it as a delivery system of highways and roads that allow oxygen-rich blood to reach every cell of your body.

The Heart of the Matter
Hospital waiting rooms are lonely places. Unfortunately for many people, the firstintroduction to cardiac disease involves waiting for physicians and nurses to deliver news about loved ones.

Do You Suffer From Heart Disease?
Cardiovascular disease is the number-one preventable cause of death in Canada today. A healthy diet of whole natural foods, regular exercise and good quality sleep can go a long way to reduce the stresses on our heart, arguably the body's most important organ.

Seniors: Hooked on Drugs
About 75 -per -cent of seniors 65 and older living in private households take prescription or non-prescription drugs on a daily basis. For institutionalized seniors, this jumps to a whopping 96 -per -cent.

Moving Through a Frozen February
The dull days of frozen February provide little motivation to be active in a country where inactivity is already an issue year round. A survey conducted by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute in 1999 shows that 64 percent of Canadians are still not active enough to reap the health benefits of a physically active lifestyle.

Heart Pains
Heart disease accounts for the death of more Canadians than any other disease with about 79,400 deaths annually. Yet, many Canadians do not understand, or perhaps refuse to believe, the potentially life-saving power of food.

Grape Expectations
It is sobering news for women that they now not only suffer equal rates of heart disease as men, but are more likely to die from their heart attacks.

Heart on Track
In this month of cupid's arrows, the emotional health of our heart is under the spotlight. Amid the deluge of chocolates and flowers, however, it's important to remember to nurture the physical health of this most vulnerable organ..

Preventing Heart Disease
Has blood cholesterol been overemphasized as a risk factor for heart disease? Elevated blood cholesterol levels, particularly the bad form of cholesterol - low-density lipoprotein (LDL) - is definitely a risk factor, bu.

Shopping List for a Healthy Heart

Vitamin E (100 percent natural source mixed toco.

Warm Feet, Warm Heart

Sweat It Out
My best friend, Kim, never sweats. Instead, a light film of glistening moisture begins to cover her skin as her workout progresses from the warm-up to a more intense stage.

Reduce Cellulite Naturally
I have always been jealous of my friend, who is naturally petite, eats all she wants, and never seems to gain a pound. But despite how skinny she is, she still complains of cellulite.

Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease Without Prescriptions
Cholesterol tests have been the standard for predicting heart disease for many years. However, a new risk factor - high levels of homocysteine - have gained increasing interest and research in recent years.

Exercise to Entertain
Most often people do not stick to exercise programs because they lack motivation due to stress, time management issues or simply a boring workout. The key to sticking with your resolutions comes from making your workouts fun.

Soy for the Heart

The Four Cornerstones to Heart Health

Cardio vs. Strength Training
Cardiovascular training provides a good foundation when it comes to exercise, offering benefits in weight control, endurance, and overall cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, as we age cardio exercises alone can't help us preserve muscle mass. Combining strength and cardio training is the ideal way to keep your heart, muscles, and bones toned and healthy.

A New Start?
Ready to make a new start this year? Don't forget about your heart! A routine of healthy diet, stress reduction, and exercise will go a long way toward helping to improve your odds of avoiding heart disease. Many natural products, too, can help improve your heart health.

Move Over Has-Bean
Recently, while my friends and I were sharing a laugh over a cuppa java, I looked across the table at Amanda's cup and realized there was no ebony liquid in it. Instead, she was delicately sipping green tea. One of Amanda's jokes?

Healthy Heart Metabolism
Everyone knows that one of the main keys to healthy heart metabolism is regular exercise. Aside from the fact that exercise strengthens muscle tissue-and your heart is a muscle-exercise also enhances one of the body's main repair biochemicals, insulin-like growth factor-1, or IGF-1.

Take It Outside
Successfully enjoying winter sports requires specific preparation and training. Even active adults involved in sports like cycling and jogging haven't trained for shifts in balance, setting them up for possible injuries when participating in winter sports.

What's your expiry date?
To know the date of your death well in advance would be a rare gift. Or would it?

Fight Night at the Gym
Fitness boxing is a fun and exciting way to stay in shape. It's an easy-to-learn workout that demands full physical and mental commitment. The results are incredible. Fitness boxing can help you find yourself in the best physical and mental shape of your life.

The Copper Connection
Copper is at the core of normal body function. Without copper, we cannot form superoxide dismutase, the superpower of all antioxidants. Copper also helps our bodies create collagen, the protein that forms healthy joints and supple, young skin. And it has a role in helping our bodies store iron, a critical component of the formation of hemoglobin in red blood cells.

Five Ways to Get your Fruits and Veggies

Supersize Dilemma

Start young for better health

Encouragement goes a long way

Kick it up a notch

For better balance, try Tai Chi

Spirit of Fitness

School Kids and Exercise

Heart Displayed in Whole New Light

Row, Row, Row Your Way to Fitness

Peak Performance

Coronary Heart Disease
This month we look at preventing and treating heart disease. Nathan examines ounces of prevention, measured in grams of fat per serving, while Janice discovers the importance of familial connection, measured in speed of returned phone calls.

Top 10 Tips For a Healthy Heart
Can diet and lifestyle changes really help you fight family history of heart disease and prevent heart attacks, high blood pressure, and stroke? Medical research says yes.

ROLL'N
Inline skating is a great aerobic workout that the entire family can use to help stay in shape. Some people enjoy taking long leisurely skates, while others use inline skating for intense cardiovascular training or as a mode of transportation on city streets.

Self Defence
Would you like to get over the fear of attack or learn to act on your own behalf? These are just a couple of considerations that might motivate you to take up a self-defence program. Let's face it-violence happens; therefore, self-defence is a life skill, not a luxury.

Bliss on the Water
The turquoise blush of the Pacific sparkled in the afternoon sun as my wife and I eased our sea kayaks onto a beach of white, talcum-powder sand. A jumble of bleached driftwood fringed the lush coastal rainforest, home to a pair of bald eagles cruising the cloudless sky.

Coenzyme Q10
One of the most important coenzymes discovered-CoQ10-has been compared to a spark plug in a car. Just as a car cannot function without that initial spark, the human body cannot function without CoQ10.

It's as Easy as One, Two...Eight
The lesson of today is we can improve upon yesterday while getting ready for the days to come. The New Year is an excellent time to reflect and motivate ourselves to make small yet significant changes to our health.

Heart to Health
Traditional merges with modern in this short list of herbs, nutritional supplements, and natural foods recommended by naturopathic and medical doctors, researchers, and, yes, even your dear old granny.

Capoeira
A group stands in a circle clapping in rhythm along with three musicians. Two people from the circle jump into the centre. What follows is a beautiful display of kicks and flips, with each of them executing movements in close proximity but just missing each other. This is Capoeira.

Superfood in a Nutshell
What nuts lack in size they more than make up for in nutrition.

Flamenco
Flamenco-dance, music, and song-is a living art form originating in Southern Spain. Celebrating the amalgamation of people from diverse cultures, creeds, and stages of life, flamenco is an art form that nurtures the mind, body, and soul. One needs merely the courage and the desire to explore.

Remember Rhodiola
A herb that was widely used by ancient Nordic seafarers is still being used by monks of the Himalayas. The therapeutic properties of this Arctic herb, rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea), have also been impressing modern researchers.

Playing in a Winter Wonderland
Now that the holidays are under way, it can be a challenge to stay in shape. Instead of being jealous of the two preteens boxing on the interactive video game you bought them for Christmas to thwart childhood obesity, resolve to commandeer the controls of the first one who sits on the couch.

This Might Save Your Life
"I'm going to call an ambulance, I told my patient, a woman in her early 50s. She knew that something was wrong, but I knew she wasn't convinced that her symptoms were serious. Most women, and many men, aren't aware of the more subtle signs of a heart attack.

Play Well With Others
When you think about exercise, do you picture boring jogs on the treadmill, cut off from the rest of the world by those treadmill rails and your iPod? If so, perhaps you should revise your definition. It's time to discover the joys of working out with others, including your valentine.

Work Your Butt Off
You're careful to eat the right foods and you take a daily vitamin supplement. But you know that something valuable is missing from your daily regimen. If finding the time and motivation to exercise is a burden, then why not give yourself the boot?

Stress Less
Many Canadians suffer from stress. It’s the root cause of numerous health challenges we experience. Finding ways to reduce stress is essential to improve our health and our quality of life.

Change It Up!
Are you burned out or bored with your fitness routine? Did you start out eager to make improvements to your strength, conditioning, and healthy lifestyle, but now find yourself sidetracked?