Walk your heart to health (Cardiovascular health and aerobics)

Aging….an inevitable part of life that neither can be reverted nor paused. With age, come many things along, from a lifetime of experiences to the impact all these years of hardwork and unending days and nights of stress and work have had on our physical wellbeing.

As we age, the body loses its flexibility throughout. The joint lubricants thicken up, the cushioning between the spinal segments dry out, capsular covering become tighter, and the muscles and blood vessels become thicker and stiffer. Aging stiffens and hardens the whole structural base which further results in declining work/exertional capacity of the body. In short the body becomes less accommodating to stress and exertion. However, these changes can trigger and advance really fast and at a very early age if left unaddressed.

Not only with aging and stress, but also with additional factors like a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy eating habits and a lack of exercise, puts the heart into a vulnerable state. All these factors can contribute to changes like narrowed and plaqued blood vessels, thickened heart walls and arteries and breathing difficulties. With this, the need of inculcating regular aerobic exercises in your daily life becomes all the more important.

What are aerobic exercises?

Also known as endurance exercises, aerobic exercises are one of the four types of exercises along with strength, balance and flexibility exercises. Like each type of exercise has its own goals and targets, aerobic exercises are targeted to build up stamina and endurance, which means these exercises are aimed to increase your ability to carry through a moderate intensity task for a longer period.

Aerobic exercise includes activities that increase your heart rate and breath rate. Activities like long distance running, jogging, brisk walking, cycling, swimming, jumping are few examples of aerobic exercises. Any exercise performed at moderate intensity and for longer duration that makes your heart pump faster and your breath heavier than usual are all aeobic or endurance exercises.

Effect of aerobic exercises on your heart

1. Aerobic exercise increases blood pumping throughout the heart and the body, thereby supplying more nutrition to different bodily systems.
2. Activates the sleeping/dormant cells and blood vessels of the body, as a result increases body’s work efficiency. This means our body is now able to generate more energy and power to work utilizing the sources in a better way and reducing the free roaming harmful free radicals in the body.
3. As we practice exercising aerobically, our heart starts developing greater muscular strength, hence becoming stronger. And our lungs start taking up more oxygen by opening up their minutest airways to absorb much more oxygen than a usual sedentary person.
4. This new oxygen rich body has a newfound store of energy and can work more efficiently and for longer periods without feeling exhausted or burnt out.
5. Long term practice of these exercises tends to control your high blood pressure, decrease bad cholesterol LDL, increase good cholesterol HDL.
6. The walls of our blood vessels have a natural nitric oxide cleaning system that prevents their clogging which gets hindered by aging, sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle. Regular exercise triggers this system again that helps in cleaning these blocked arteries and veins.

Apart from all these systemic changes, exercise boosts our brain by declining the rate of brain shrinkage as we age, and acts as a mood elevator by keeping the levels of ‘feel good’ hormones like endorphins, oxytocin and dopamine high.

How Much Do I Need?

 If you’re just starting out on an exercise routine after being sedentary, don’t rush it. If you haven’t been active for a long time, it’s important to work your way up over time.

Start out with 10-15 minutes at a time and then gradually build up. The

AHA recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of

moderate to vigorous activity per week. Thirty minutes a day for five days a

week is an easy goal to remember. Some people will be able to do more.

It’s important to set realistic goals as per your health and abilities, and when you are ready to do more, you can ramp up by increasing the repetitions/time/difficulty or just add a new activity that you love doing.

How Do I Check My Exercise Intensity?

There are two ways of doing so:

1. Check how you feel (your perceived exertion): This is a subjective measure and totally depends on a person’s fitness level. A moderate intensity workout will feel somewhat hard, while a vigorous intensity workout will feel hard/challenging.
2. Check your Maximum and Target Heart Rate: Maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age; and is highly objective.

While for a Target heart rate, AHA (American Heart Foundation) recommends;

Moderate exercise intensity: 50-70% of Maximum Heart Rate

Vigorous exercise intensity:  70-85% of Maximum Heart Rate

However, the interlinkage of both exertion level and heart rate has been established scientifically, and can be used interchangeably.

What exercises can I do as a form of endurance training?

1. Swimming
2. Brisk walking
3. Jogging
4. Aerobic dancing/ Bhangra dancing (also famous as Cardio-Bhangra these days)
5. Cycling
6. Climbing stairs at work
7. Playing any sports like football, tennis, basketball or raquet sports.

The ultimate aim is to keep your heart young as you age. As you walk through the life, make sure you walk and sail your heart to health as well.