Your heart is a muscle and like any other muscle in your body, you need to exercise it regularly, so it stays healthy and strong.
Physiotherapist Wan Hui Ling from National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) shares the best workouts for the heart.
Your heart is the most important muscle in your body so shouldn’t you make time to exercise it? Even if you hardly exercise, it’s never too late to start doing it regularly. Just taking a 30-minute brisk walk daily can make a difference.
“For heart health, aerobic exercise and resistance training are important,” shares Physiotherapist Wan Hui Ling from Cardiac Physiotherapy Services at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), a member of the SingHealth group.
Importance of warm ups and cool downs
Warming up and cooling down are also important components of exercise, which are frequently neglected.
Warm up should be done before you exercise to allow your blood vessels to dilate, to ensure that the muscles in your body has sufficient oxygen. It also increases the temperature of your muscles to ensure the ideal flexibility of muscles, which in turn makes them more efficient during exercise. Warm up helps to raise your heart rate slowly, which reduces the stress on the heart. This will also help to reduce the risk of abnormal heartbeats during exercise.
Cooling down after exercising is as important as well. After a workout, your heart rate increases, your body temperature is raised and your blood vessels are dilated. If you stop too quickly, this might cause you to feel faint or unwell. A good cool down routine after an exercise will reduce such episodes and allow for your vitals and body condition to gradually return to normal.
Stretching exercises are recommended during cool down as it can help reduce the lactic acid build-up in the muscles, which can decrease episodes of muscles cramping and stiffness.
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