Anyone’s heart, man or woman, consists of muscles, and engaging in various exercises helps strengthen these muscles, generally improving heart health. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), devoting at least thirty minutes of aerobic exercises several times a week helps to reduce the chances of heart diseases. Although many exercises exist, the following are the best exercises to improve men’s heart health.
Swimming
Most people undertake swimming whenever they feel lazy or as a leisure activity. However, it’s imperative to understand that having regular swimming sessions helps strengthen not only body muscles but also the heart. Among other aerobic exercises, swimming is among the top popular ones, considering it’s also gentle on bones and joints. Experts recommend that engaging in swimming for around two hours weekly is important in improving heart health. Besides swimming, men should undertake yoga sessions to improve their heart health. While swimming strengthens heart muscles, yoga not only strengthens them but also tones them, also helping to improve the heart rate. People practice yoga with calmness, helping to reduce high blood pressure.
Cycling
Riding bicycles is a method of transport, helping to move freely from one position to another. However, different cardiologists associate cycling with reduced chances of suffering from heart disease. When a person cycles, they use heart muscles, helping to protect it from various conditions, including heart attack and accumulation of cholesterol within veins. It’s also an important exercise to reduce any resting pulses. Besides, cycling improves a person’s metabolism, helping burn excess fats in the body and building critical body muscles, leading to reduced weight and chances of suffering from obesity. Obesity is one causative factor to heart diseases, and avoiding it reduces the chances of suffering from heart conditions. While it may appear stressful to some, researchers indicate that regular cycling about two times a day helps burn calories that could accumulate in blood vessels, thus improving heart health.
Resistance Exercises
Besides cycling, weight exercises, like lifting weights and using the body’s natural weight is another important exercise to improve heart health. The American Heart Association advises that people should engage in frequent resistance training sessions, in addition to other aerobic exercises that are important for heart health, such as cycling and swimming. In resistance training, people undertake weight exercises intending to change the composition of their bodies. For instance, having a lot of fats accumulation in the body, like in big bellies, is a huge risk factor to the heart’s health. Resistance exercises help tone such fats, helping build muscles that keep eliminating any accumulation of cholesterol in the body. The best schedule involves having at least two resistance exercises twice per week, involving lifting simple weights, such as dumbbells, and other body weight exercises like push-ups.
Walking
Besides cycling and swimming, walking is another accessible exercise that men should use to improve their heart health. Whereas other exercises may appear cost-intensive in one way or another, walking is a free exercise, and anyone affords it. Men should practice walking in different bursts of speed, but it should not be at very low speeds to increase the heart rate. Like swimming, walking is gentle to the joints and bones than almost all other exercises, but only after wearing a comfortable pair of shoes. Since it’s often boring to walk alone, men should identify partners while undertaking this exercise or another form of entertainment to keep them focused on achieving the goal.
Running
Closely associated with walking is running, although they’re quite different in terms of intensity and energy used. Running is more energy-intense, and one needs to do it gradually until they gain enough fitness. Like other high-intense exercises, people should exercise running at intervals, enabling them to burn excess calories to improve heart health and allow enough time for recovering any energy losses. Unlike walking, running results in rapid rise and fall of heart rates, helping to maintain the proper functioning of heart muscles.
It’s a common scenario for men to assume no relation exists between their body’s weight and the health of their hearts. However, different organizations like the American Heart Association recommend against ignoring the importance of maintaining healthy bodies towards ensuring an equally healthy heart. Multiple exercises exist, but only a few provide the expected benefits of having strong heart muscles and optimum functioning heart vessels. As discussed, they include swimming, which is gentle to joints and bones, helping to strengthen heart muscles. The others include cycling, walking, running, and resistance exercises that involve weightlifting and using the body’s natural weight. Depending on a person’s current condition, various exercises can be more significant than others. For instance, if in need of improving heart rate, running is most appropriate, following the sudden bursts of speed following by periods of recovery. In contrast, cycling is the best aerobic exercise if one needs better blood flow through clearing fat accumulation in their heart vessels. It improves the body’s metabolism, helping to burn excess cholesterol in the body. Get yourself in shape, get confident, and wear some men’s jockstraps with pride to show exactly how well your heart is pumping.
