Exercise Tips for a Healthy Heart

Benefits of Regular Exercise

• A Decrease in Heart Disease Risk Factors: Exercise lowers your risk for diabetes and high blood pressure, lowers weight and reduces overall body fat.
  
• An Improvement in Heart Health: Exercise helps the heart and cardiovascular system work more effectively, reduces your risk of death from heart disease and decreases your risk of chest discomfort and heart failure.
  
• An Increase in Strength: Exercise improves balance, posture, flexibility, muscle tone and bone and joint health. It also reduces your risk of bone fractures.
  
• An Increased Feeling of Well-Being: Exercise increases self-esteem and lessens symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Heart-Healthy Exercise Plans

1. Warm-Up: Warm-ups help ease people into exercise from rest, should be about five minutes long and can include stretching and the conditioning activity at a lower intensity.
   
2. Conditioning: This is the main exercise and can vary in intensity depending on your fitness level. Conditioning should be done most days of the week for 30 to 40 minutes or in smaller increments that add up to 30 to 40 minutes throughout the day.
   
3. Cool-Down: The cool-down phase allows the body to recover from conditioning and should last about five minutes. Cool-down activity can be the conditioning activity at a lower intensity or stretching exercises, much like the warm-up period.

Exercising at Home and at Work

At home, try:

• doing housework or working in the garden
  
• going for a short five- to 10-minute walk before each meal
  
• parking farther away at the mall and other shops
  
• walking or riding a bike to run errands
  
• sitting up or riding a stationary bike while watching television
  
• standing up or walking around while talking on the phone.

At work, try:

• joining a gym near work to facilitate before- and after-work exercise sessions
  
• participating in a sports team or recreational league at your company, or starting one if none exist
  
• standing up while talking on the phone
  
• taking the stairs instead of the elevator
  
• walking around during breaks and lunch hours
  
• walking to coworkers' offices to speak with them instead of phoning or e-mailing.

On weekends and vacations, try:

• joining a recreational club
  
• organizing sporty activities with a friend or a group
  
• planning fun outings that include physical activity, like hiking, biking, kayaking or swimming
  
• seeing the sites by walking or biking instead of driving
  
• taking dance lessons.