For Your Heart and Body's Health, Exercise Regularly
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The heart, like other muscles in the body, needs exercise to maintain its health and strength. Because regular exercise contributes to enhancing health and wellness, it is recommended to practice moderate-intensity exercise for at least 150 minutes per week.
Exercise contributes to improving heart health by:
Reducing the risk of death from heart disease.
Helping to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of heart and artery functions.
Reducing the symptoms of angina (chest pain) and heart failure.
Exercise also plays an important role in reducing risk factors for heart disease by:
Reducing the risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure.
Improving the body's ability to deal with consumed sugar (in case of diabetes).
Helping to control high blood pressure.
Improving blood lipid levels (cholesterol, bad cholesterol, good cholesterol, and triglycerides) alongside other methods used to regulate them (diet and medication).
Supporting and promoting smoking cessation efforts.
Getting rid of excess fat and maintaining the body's ideal weight.
Practicing exercise also benefits improving strength, physical fitness, and enhancing general health by:
Maintaining the health of muscles, bones, and joints.
Stimulating physical activity and the ability to perform daily activities and tasks without feeling tired and exhausted.
Improving body flexibility and balance.
Improving body shape and appearance and maintaining muscle strength.
Reducing the chances of feeling stress, anxiety, and depression.
Improving the feeling of health and wellness and enhancing self-satisfaction.
Stages of Exercise Sessions:
Warm-up
This stage helps prepare the body to transition from a state of rest to activity, as it helps reduce the stress placed on the heart and muscles by gradually increasing the rate or speed of breathing and heartbeats and raising body temperature. This helps improve flexibility and thus reduces the chances of injury from muscle strain. Warm-up exercises include:
Low-intensity exercises, such as: slow walking.
Mobility activities for joint and muscle flexibility.
Stretching exercises.
To achieve optimal benefit for the muscles, heart, and arteries from warm-up exercises, the duration of practice should not be less than approximately 15 minutes.
Conditioning
This stage comes after the warm-up stage to condition the body's internal systems, such as the heart and lungs, and prepare them to perform the required effort with the best possible efficiency. In this stage, it is recommended not to overlook the following four points:
Frequency: This is the frequency of regularity in exercising, where you should commit to practicing it most days of the week.
Intensity: This is the intensity of the exercises performed. Moderate-intensity exercises should be practiced to ensure an increase in heart rate and breathing rate or speed. Monitor heart rate accurately and adjust physical activity to a level that allows for conducting a conversation or speaking clearly during the exercise (the talk test). This test is a general approximate measure to help determine the suitability of the physical activity, whether it is too strenuous or too easy. It is worth noting that the rate of the perceived exertion scale, which can be obtained from a physical therapist, can be used when exercising.
Duration: This is the time period required for exercise, which ranges from 30 to 40 minutes continuously, or distributed in intermittent periods of 10 minutes each, equivalent to 30 to 40 minutes throughout the day. If you have stopped exercising for a period, it is necessary to prepare the heart, lungs, and muscles for activity during the exercise period. Therefore, it is recommended to start with short exercise sessions of approximately 15 minutes each, every other day, and then work on increasing the exercise duration by 3 to 5 minutes weekly until the goal of reaching the required exercise duration of 30 to 40 minutes on most days is achieved.
Type: The type of physical activity that achieves the results you seek. The exercise should include training for large muscle groups. You can diversify your exercise routine by performing more than one physical activity.
Aerobic Exercises: These are physical activities that help you breathe more deeply and increase your breathing rate and heart rate, allowing you to use and exercise large muscle groups repeatedly for a long period. Examples of these exercises include: walking and cycling.
Muscle Strength Training: This type of exercise can be practiced every other day. It is essential to include this exercise in your fitness program, as it helps improve muscle fitness by exercising muscles or muscle groups.
Stretching Exercises: This type of exercise helps maintain or improve flexibility, as well as preparing and readying the body for physical activity. The importance of practicing stretching exercises lies in their role in preventing the onset of pain resulting from muscle strain after finishing physical activity.
Cool-down
This stage, the last among the stages of exercise sessions, allows the return to the normal state of the body's vital signs after the conditioning stage, where the heart rate and blood pressure decrease to approximately their normal levels at rest. It should be noted that entering the cool-down stage does not mean sitting! You should also refrain from standing still motionless or lying down immediately after exercise, as this may cause dizziness, lightheadedness, or a rapid heartbeat (palpitations).
It is recommended to follow the following tips and guidelines during the cool-down stage:
Gradually reduce the intensity of physical activity and remember to keep your feet moving.
Perform light stretching and flexibility exercises for joints and muscles to avoid injury from muscle strain after finishing physical activity.
And as is the case in the warm-up stage, to achieve the best desired results from cool-down exercises, the duration of practice should not be less than approximately 10 minutes.
Please follow the following tips and guidelines for your safety:
Exercise may pose a health risk if practiced without adhering to taking medications as instructed by your doctor, especially heart medications.
For people with diabetes, exercise may pose a health risk if practiced with extremely high or low blood sugar levels. Therefore, all people with diabetes (except those being treated with the drug "Metformin") should measure their blood sugar level before and after physical activity.
Type 1 Diabetes: In case of Type 1 diabetes, exercise can be practiced safely if the blood sugar level is between 100 mg/dL (5.5 mmol/L) and 250 mg/dL (13.8 mmol/L).
Type 2 Diabetes: In case of Type 2 diabetes, exercise can be practiced safely if the blood sugar level is between 100 mg/dL (5.5 mmol/L) and 300 mg/dL (16.6 mmol/L).
Refrain from exercising if you feel tired and fatigued; it is better to wait until you feel more comfortable and relaxed.
Avoid exercising if you have an acute medical condition, infection, or fever. It is recommended to wait several days until the symptoms disappear before resuming your fitness program, unless there are other instructions recommended by your doctor.
Avoid exercising in harsh weather conditions.
Hot Weather: Dedicate the hours of the morning or evening for walking, when temperatures are lower, to avoid stress on the heart. Change exercise times if the temperature exceeds 27°C and humidity exceeds 80%.
Cold Weather: Dedicate the warmest periods of the day for walking. It is preferable not to exercise outdoors if the ground is slippery or if the temperature drops below -7°C.
Extremely Bad Weather: You can walk in malls and shopping centers.
Avoid showering with very cold or hot water or entering saunas after exercising.
Refrain from consuming alcoholic beverages before exercising.
Ensure you wear clothes appropriate for the weather condition and always wear suitable shoes.
Wait for at least 60 minutes after eating before exercising. It is also recommended to avoid large meals before exercising, in addition to drinking moderate amounts of fluids like water, ranging from 177 to 237 ml, before and during exercise, unless your doctor has recommended restricting your fluid intake.
Ensure to inform the cardiac rehabilitation team of any changes that may occur to your medications before continuing with your fitness program, as medications can have a very significant impact on the body's response to physical activities.
Reduce the level of physical activity if you interrupt your fitness program for several days due to illness, vacation, bad weather, during Ramadan, or other circumstances that may necessitate stopping exercise. Gradually increase the level of physical activity in line with your tolerance after resuming your fitness program.
Ensure you follow the tips and guidelines provided by your physical therapist regarding the target heart rate range for exercise, as the heart rate range is one way to monitor the intensity of physical activity.
Stop the exercise session and get some rest if any of the symptoms mentioned below appear.
Call your doctor if the symptoms persist for more than 20 minutes or reappear frequently.
Severe shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Feeling discomfort in the chest (tightness, pressure, fullness, heaviness, or burning inside the chest).
Feeling discomfort either in one arm, the neck, jaw, or pain extending between the shoulder blades.
Dizziness or feeling lightheaded and fainting during exercise.
Heart rhythm disturbance (sudden onset of palpitations and rapid heartbeat).
Severe fatigue and exhaustion.
Pain in the joints or bones during or after exercise.
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We offer you the following tips and steps to help you follow a routine that ensures permanent regularity in exercise:
Set achievable short-term goals, and remember that big changes do not happen overnight. Over time, you will notice the improvement made and the progress towards your goal from exercising.
Choose physical activities that suit your daily schedule: Choose the time of day that you find most suitable for exercise and write it down alongside other appointments in your daily schedule. Avoid relying solely on fitness classes to meet your exercise needs. If you miss a class, use the time allocated for it by walking outside or in a shopping center.
Make advance plans: If you choose an outdoor activity, plan for another activity that can be done indoors on days with bad weather conditions.
Keep an exercise log: Record the type of physical activity you did, the duration it took, the perceived exertion scale rate or heart rate, along with any notes you wish to record. After a few weeks, you will be able to notice the progress made since you started exercising.
Start practicing physical activities within your fitness program gradually. Set goals and work to achieve them gradually, and do not expect to achieve the success you seek overnight.
Exercise should have a share of fun and entertainment: Choose an exercise that brings you joy and pleasure. You may want to alternate physical activities (walking one day, cycling the next). Listen to music or watch TV while exercising if it's the type done indoors. Find a "buddy" or group to accompany you while walking or cycling, as this is a good way to make new friends.
Make exercise a daily habit: You must adhere to your fitness program for several months until regular exercise becomes part of your daily routine. In the beginning, if you are not regular in exercising for a week, start being regular again the following week, and you will soon notice your desire to exercise or feel the need for it if you miss it!
Make exercise fun-filled family moments: Sedentary activities like watching TV can be replaced by accompanying family members on a walk or bike ride. This is considered a wonderful and amazing way to enjoy nature, discover new places, and spend times filled with health, fun, and joy.
Copyright 2017 Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. All rights reserved.
This information is provided by Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, part of Mubadala Healthcare, and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.