Just 10 Minutes for a Healthy Heart?
from the article '10 Minutes to a Healthy Heart'
Exercise Your Most Important Muscle
By Jennifer Gruenemay, ACE-Certified, Special to Lifescript
Published September 01, 2010
Heart disease isn’t just an old-age problem. It often begins in your youth and takes a lifetime to develop. Fortunately, you can jumpstart your heart health at any age. Check out Lifescript's 10-Minute Heart Circuit program…
You’ve heard it before: Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the U.S. But women often gloss over this fact because, after all, isn’t it typically a man’s disease?
The reality? Heart disease kills more women than men each year. And if you’ve been exercising the remote more than your abs at the gym, your risk is double that of women who make fitness a priority, says the American Heart Association (AHA).
“Women have to be active to protect their hearts,” says Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., director of the John Hancock Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Tufts University, co-author of Strong Women, Strong Hearts (Putnam Adult) and expert at BeWell.com. Her advice? Lace up your gym shoes and get that heart rate going.
Along with a heart-smart diet, exercise helps keep your stress, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight under control – all important factors for a healthy heart.
“Aerobic fitness keeps the entire cardiovascular system healthy,” Nelson says.
But you don’t have to go from couch potato to marathon runner to get a healthy heart boost. All you really need is 10 minutes.
Three 10-minute bouts of exercise a day improve cardiorespiratory fitness as much as one 30-minute session, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report.
You need 30 minutes of exercise five or more days a week for a healthy heart.
What kind of exercise is best for a healthy heart? Most experts first suggest cardio.
“Any activity that increases heart rate and breathing rate – like walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, hiking, etc. – is good for the heart,” Nelson says.
But weight lifting is also highly recommended.
“Strength training helps the heart too,” Nelson says, “but it’s best when done in combination with aerobic exercise.”
MY THOUGHTS
Dancing is considered as aerobic exercise. 10 minutes spread through out the day is not too much too ask-if you want a healthy heart. The decision is entirely yours.
