Kyle Wood Fitness . com » LISS http://kylewoodfitness.com Motivation, education and inspiration to help you succeed in being fit and healthy. Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:41:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The Benefits of Exercise: Reduce Chance Of Heart Conditions http://kylewoodfitness.com/reduce-chance-of-heart-conditions/ http://kylewoodfitness.com/reduce-chance-of-heart-conditions/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:59:31 +0000 Kyle http://kylewoodfitness.com/?p=251 This is a new series or articles that I will be running. The reason is that I think a lot of people think going to the gym or training is simply to improve physical looks. While this is some peoples goal, if you are healthy inside your body will reflect that naturally. And that is why we as humans are attracted to muscles, tight butts and nice curves, because typically this is a sign of a healthy body. That however is another topic entirely. This first article will cover the fact that your heart health benefits a lot from training and exercise.

A few notes about heart related illness:

  • Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) is usually found in people who are overweight, physically inactive or have a lot of salt in their diet.
    • It can also be exacerbated by high stress levels from work and other activities.
    • Exercise is crucial in weight loss and is proven to help you manage stress knocking out 3 of those factors.
  • Cardiovascular Disease is caused by a breaking off of plaque in an artery. The plaque is usually caused by high bad cholesterol which is caused by really poor diet.
    • It kills one Australian every 10 minutes.
    • Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, diabetes and being overweight all contribute to the likeliness of getting heart disease.

Best types of exercise to improve heart health:

  • Heart

    HIIT (High Intensity Interval Cardio): HIIT involves short intervals of hard and medium intensity whether it be on a treadmill, cross-training, punching bag or outside. The idea is that the short bursts of super intense training will keep your heart rate elevated even through the medium intensity parts. Pushing your heart rate up high will force your heart to grow stronger. Increasing heart strength is crucial in lowering blood pressure.

  • Steady state cardio such as walking and cycling is excellent to get your heart pumping, especially if you are sitting around most of the day at work which your heart unchallenged.
  • Play a sport. Not only is this great fun, it is also a good way to make new friends and find other people with the same fitness goals as you.

Best changes to diet to improve heart health:

  • Try not to add too much salt to your food. Avoiding pre packaged, frozen and take away foods are a really easy way to lower your salt consumption.
  • Eat a balanced diet, including food from all the food groups in appropriate proportions.
  • Keep alcohol to a minimum, avoid binge drinking.
  • Quit smoking. Not really diet related but definitely worth mentioning.
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