Exercise & Your Heart....
Today's post: Tuesday, 5-13-2008
When I first read that regular aerobic exercise or cardio improved your health & protected you from stress, I was impressed and began running regularly.
Since I was under some time pressure I never ran long distances. Even when I ran more for a while I only ran for 4, 5, or 7 miles on my longer runs. And, during the week I only ran 2 or 3 miles. I only did the longer runs once each on Saturdays & Sundays.
Also, by the time I tried the longer runs, I had been doing the 2 & 3 mile runs for several months. So I was in decently good shape & my body was acclimated to running.
I was never tempted to run the bit over 26 miles for a Marathon or go on the even longer runs.
It now turns out my choices may have been fortunate. At that time, it was thought that more running than I was doing & longer distances than I was running were even more health protective than what I did.
We now know that as the distance you run or the time you do a cardio session get above 3 miles or half an hour at a time, you begin to stress your heart significantly. And, if you aren’t in shape; haven’t acclimated to that exercise for several weeks at shorter times & distances; & haven’t taken steps to reverse undesirable readings on heart biomarkers ahead of time, you can actually do yourself more harm than good. Some people have even died. In aerobics or cardio for most people LOTS MORE is NOT better & is often dangerous.
In some ways this is good news. It means that the shorter or less time consuming aerobic exercise that more people have time for is safer and even may be BETTER for your heart.
It also means that people are learning to build up gradually to more advanced exercise instead of trying to start off too hard.
And, it means that people, including me, are taking steps to protect their heart in other ways besides exercise. That improves the protection from exercise; makes exercise safer to do; & has direct and separate health benefits exercise alone doesn’t do.
A recent study found that both strength training & aerobics or cardio increased the muscle size & strength of the left ventricle of the heart of the people doing the exercise. However, only the aerobics or cardio benefited the right ventricle as well.
The left ventricle is the more important of the two in some ways. But the right ventricle is also important. And, it sounded like in my reading of the report that aerobics or cardio might best work to promote artery flexibility; normal blood pressure, & endothelial health.
Since both the strength to do things and the ability to do them without having stop right away to catch your breath for not doing all that much give you more control & capacity in your life, it’s been clear to me for some time that doing some of each kind of exercise – both strength training AND aerobics or cardio -- is a good idea.
Also, recently it has been found that progressive strength training to the point of being quite vigorous and doing aerobics or cardio with multiple sections of higher to high intensity do more to help you keep off excess fat or remove it than steady state aerobics or cardio does – even if the steady state aerobics or cardio lasts a long time.
And, one of the reasons that this is good news is that even sessions of this kind of “interval” aerobics or cardio that are as little as 10 minutes long are effective at fat loss if you do them right.
It seems doing progressive strength training to the point of being quite vigorous or doing aerobics or cardio with multiple sections of higher to high intensity cause your body to increase your metabolism for HOURS afterwards.
And, regular progressive strength training has the added benefit that it gradually increases your muscle mass. And THAT ensures you burn more calories even on days you aren’t exercising.
Lastly, if you do aerobics or cardio interval style where you push hard enough to get out of breath & then rest or slow down to a pace where you can catch your breath & repeat several times, it’s also been found that you will get into good shape far faster than doing steady state aerobics or cardio for the same amount of time. (Note: This is far safer & more effective if YOU decide when to speed up & when to slow down to catch your breath than if some pre-programmed exercise device decides for you. You have internal feedback on your body in real time. Programmed speed ups & slow downs do not.)
So, if you get your heart health biomarkers in shape; do some progressive strength training each week; & do some interval style aerobics or cardio each week; & you work up to higher intensity gradually in both kinds of exercise, that seems to be both safest & most effective to keep you fit, trim, & to protect your heart.
Today's post: Tuesday, 5-13-2008
When I first read that regular aerobic exercise or cardio improved your health & protected you from stress, I was impressed and began running regularly.
Since I was under some time pressure I never ran long distances. Even when I ran more for a while I only ran for 4, 5, or 7 miles on my longer runs. And, during the week I only ran 2 or 3 miles. I only did the longer runs once each on Saturdays & Sundays.
Also, by the time I tried the longer runs, I had been doing the 2 & 3 mile runs for several months. So I was in decently good shape & my body was acclimated to running.
I was never tempted to run the bit over 26 miles for a Marathon or go on the even longer runs.
It now turns out my choices may have been fortunate. At that time, it was thought that more running than I was doing & longer distances than I was running were even more health protective than what I did.
We now know that as the distance you run or the time you do a cardio session get above 3 miles or half an hour at a time, you begin to stress your heart significantly. And, if you aren’t in shape; haven’t acclimated to that exercise for several weeks at shorter times & distances; & haven’t taken steps to reverse undesirable readings on heart biomarkers ahead of time, you can actually do yourself more harm than good. Some people have even died. In aerobics or cardio for most people LOTS MORE is NOT better & is often dangerous.
In some ways this is good news. It means that the shorter or less time consuming aerobic exercise that more people have time for is safer and even may be BETTER for your heart.
It also means that people are learning to build up gradually to more advanced exercise instead of trying to start off too hard.
And, it means that people, including me, are taking steps to protect their heart in other ways besides exercise. That improves the protection from exercise; makes exercise safer to do; & has direct and separate health benefits exercise alone doesn’t do.
A recent study found that both strength training & aerobics or cardio increased the muscle size & strength of the left ventricle of the heart of the people doing the exercise. However, only the aerobics or cardio benefited the right ventricle as well.
The left ventricle is the more important of the two in some ways. But the right ventricle is also important. And, it sounded like in my reading of the report that aerobics or cardio might best work to promote artery flexibility; normal blood pressure, & endothelial health.
Since both the strength to do things and the ability to do them without having stop right away to catch your breath for not doing all that much give you more control & capacity in your life, it’s been clear to me for some time that doing some of each kind of exercise – both strength training AND aerobics or cardio -- is a good idea.
Also, recently it has been found that progressive strength training to the point of being quite vigorous and doing aerobics or cardio with multiple sections of higher to high intensity do more to help you keep off excess fat or remove it than steady state aerobics or cardio does – even if the steady state aerobics or cardio lasts a long time.
And, one of the reasons that this is good news is that even sessions of this kind of “interval” aerobics or cardio that are as little as 10 minutes long are effective at fat loss if you do them right.
It seems doing progressive strength training to the point of being quite vigorous or doing aerobics or cardio with multiple sections of higher to high intensity cause your body to increase your metabolism for HOURS afterwards.
And, regular progressive strength training has the added benefit that it gradually increases your muscle mass. And THAT ensures you burn more calories even on days you aren’t exercising.
Lastly, if you do aerobics or cardio interval style where you push hard enough to get out of breath & then rest or slow down to a pace where you can catch your breath & repeat several times, it’s also been found that you will get into good shape far faster than doing steady state aerobics or cardio for the same amount of time. (Note: This is far safer & more effective if YOU decide when to speed up & when to slow down to catch your breath than if some pre-programmed exercise device decides for you. You have internal feedback on your body in real time. Programmed speed ups & slow downs do not.)
So, if you get your heart health biomarkers in shape; do some progressive strength training each week; & do some interval style aerobics or cardio each week; & you work up to higher intensity gradually in both kinds of exercise, that seems to be both safest & most effective to keep you fit, trim, & to protect your heart.
Labels: aerobic exercise, cardio, exercise, fat loss, interval cardio, permanent fat loss, progressive strength training, protect your heart, strength training, weight loss
posted by David at 1:21 PM
1 Comments:
Physical Exercise keeps Heart disease away. Every day at least 90 minutes of physical activities lower the risk of heart disease .Exercises which we can do easily, like jogging, swimming, cycling, aerobics etc.
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