February is Heart Health Month, so we are going to focus on how exercise can help.

Exercise can help with many things: Keeping your weight in check, boosting your immune system, strengthening your heart and keeping your cholesterol regulated – to name a few. It can also help your mental health.

And Heart Health Month is a great time to add exercise to your lifestyle, if you aren’t doing it already.

Aerobic Exercise

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise five or more days a week – or 20-60 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise three days a week for optimal cardiovascular health.

If you are like most people, you might not be coming close to meeting these targets. That’s OK! It’s hard to find time in your life for this much movement, but we are here to help.

The good news is, you don’t have to do your exercise all at once. You can mix moderate and intense workouts during the week and exercise bouts don’t have to be continuous! You can accumulate the recommended number of minutes in blocks of time as short as 10 minutes – while still getting the same benefits!

If you aren’t used to doing aerobic exercise, start with shorter blocks of time and intensity and work your way up.

Contrary to what many people believe, cardiovascular health is not specific to only long bouts of continuous exercise like running, biking, swimming, or doing the elliptical machine. In addition to increasing muscle strength and endurance, which is important for preventing injuries, and keeping the body balanced and moving efficiently, strength training also has cardiovascular benefits especially when done at high intensities or without rest in between exercises and/or sets.

The American College of Sports Medicine suggests two to three days per week of resistance training, or weightlifting, for each major muscle group in addition to aerobic exercise and flexibility. This sounds like a lot, but again it doesn’t have to be done in one fell swoop. Break up these bouts of exercise into 5–10-minute blocks throughout the day and throughout the week. More on this in future posts.

The takeaway on Heart Health Month

Several leading organizations (American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the American College of Sports Medicine) say that being sedentary is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Many Americans don’t make exercising a priority.

But it isn’t just about exercise: Just because you work out the recommended amount of time each week doesn’t mean you don’t sit for several hours during your job or leisure time.

Most people just don’t incorporate enough physical activity into their lives for many reasons: Personal barriers associated with perceived limitations in self-efficacy, lack of time, and misconceptions of the volume of exercise necessary for cardiovascular health benefits.

It doesn’t matter how good you are at your physical activity of choice; it’s just that you do it at all.

It’s important to note that people who are more active (and who have high cardiorespiratory fitness levels) have lower rates of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes.

In a nutshell: Sit less, move more.

A note: Please consult your doctor before starting any exercise program. And if you’re out of shape, gradually work up to the recommended volume and intensity levels.

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we care about your heart health. If you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.