5 Exercises for a Healthy Heart

Cardiovascular fitness will strengthen your heart and improve the way your body uses oxygen. As a result, your heart will be more efficient at pumping blood through your body. Any aerobic exercise is good for your heart, but these five physical activities are the best:

1. BRISK WALKING. It is a natural way to improve your fitness, whether you decide to go hop on a treadmill or go outside and hit the road. Though a leisure walk around the block is better than sitting on your couch, push yourself to walk at a fast pace to make it a bit more intense.
2. RUNNING. It is another way you can easily improve your fitness, as well as one of the best ways to burn calories. If you are a beginner, start out with a brisk walk and add 1 to 2 minutes of running for ever 5 minutes of walking. As it feels easier, increase the minutes you run until you don’t need to walk in between.
3. SWIMMING. Swimming laps or participating in aquatic fitness classes will not only raise your heart rate, the water also provides multi-directional resistance that will improve your muscular strength. Swimming is a great alternative if you have joint problems.
4. CYCLING. Another cardiovascular exercise that is easy on the joints is cycling. It is a low-impact exercise that you can do alone in the gym, in a spin class, or outside--either on the road or trails. You can also bike to work or to do your errands, or even join a cycling club. Not only will you work your heart, but you’ll also be building lower body strength and toning your core muscles.
5. INTERVAL OR CIRCUIT TRAINING. If doing a set of aerobic exercises seems boring to you, mix things up with intervals or circuits. For every 3 minutes of cardio, do 1 strength training exercise or a high-intensity burst of cardio for 1 minute. You can also choose 5 to 10 strength training exercises and perform 1 set of each, doing lower weight and higher repetitions while moving quickly from one exercise to the next keep your heart rate up.