A Healthy Heart

If you want to have a healthy heart, you need to perform aerobic exercise. A successful program involves frequent physical activity that is rhythmic, repetitive, challenges the circulatory system, and uses large muscles. The program must significantly increase the blood flow to the muscles for an extended period of time, which promotes cardiovascular fitness. Such exercises are called dynamic or aerobic (with oxygen). Aerobic exercise generally involves using your big muscles including your back, chest, legs, and butt.

Aerobic activities really "get the blood pumping." As the heart beats faster, the blood circulates more quickly, delivering extra oxygen to the muscles. This builds strength, or cardiovascular fitness. Some recommended aerobic activities are:

The best aerobic exercise is the one you will enjoy and do regularly!

Keeping Yourself Safe

Like most exercises, aerobic exercises are best done with an eye toward safety. This means that any program should include a warm-up and some stretching before starting to exercise, and a cool-down at the end.

The warm up functions to slowly increase your heart rate while warming up your muscles for the exercise that you are about to perform. If you do not warm-up you will fatigue more easily. It's a good idea to choose a warm-up that utilizes the same muscles that you will be using during your workout. If you are new to exercise make sure that you warm up a little longer. Often time's people skip their warm-up but this is setting you up for an injury. A proper warm-up helps to prevent injuries since it makes your muscles and joints more pliable and less likely to tear. A good rule of thumb is warming up for about 5-15 minutes.

Stretching is another key component for fitness. The best time to stretch is after you have warmed your muscles up. Stretching is very important in maintaining flexibility. As we age, our tendons begin to get tighter and shorter so stretching helps you to move about more easily.

Keep moving! The cool-down functions to slowly decrease your heart rate while redirecting blood flow back to normal. Your cool-down should last between 5 to 10 minutes. If you are jogging, just walk for another 5 minutes. If you are cycling, cycle slowly for about 5 minutes. Ultimately, the goal of the cool-down is to continue moving after your aerobic conditioning to prevent the blood from pooling in your lower extremities. Stopping too quickly can also place undue stress on your heart.

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Recommended Resource Sites

Exerstrider - Walking poles from Tom Rutlin. A good site for poles and information about pole/nordic walking.

YogaDirect.com As the name implies, this site specializes in equipment used for yoga. They have excellent prices, and sell some very good exercise mats, along with other helpful equipment, books and videos.

PowerSystems.com This is another site similar to Perform Better. They have a great variety of exercise equipment that you may find difficult to get at regular stores.

ActiveForever.com This site has equipment that is more medically based. It may be a good alternative if you're looking for physical therapy equipment or other things that a medical person may have recommended.




Buy.com This site really has little to do with fitness or nutrition, but it is one of my favorite sites. They carry everything from electronics to books. Their prices are some of the most competitive on the internet, and they often offer free shipping. If I am looking to buy almost anything, I check them out first. This link is only for US and Canadian buyers.

Shoebuy.com I have a lot of trouble finding shoes that fit me right (weird foot problems), but this site often works for me. They not only have very competitive prices and a great variety of shoes, but they offer f.r.e.e shipping and f.r.e.e returns.

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