Episode 25: Boost Your Heart Health with Cardio
Improve heart your health for more energy and to recover better from your workouts.
There are many ways to boost your cardiovascular system, some of which don't even require doing traditional workouts.
The key is to find activities that motivate you to move. In the episode, I'll introduce a variety of exercise formats to get your heart rate up, including activities of daily living, steady-state cardio, circuit training, and high-intensity interval training.
In addition to moving more in your everyday life, you can also improve your heart health by doing things like eating a healthy diet, limiting alcohol intake, staying hydrated, managing stress, and getting regular health checkups.
Best Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy
Healthy Diet
Consume a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins (such as poultry, fish, beans, and legumes), and healthy fats (found in nuts, seeds, avocados, and olive oil). Limit intake of processed foods, red meat, sugary beverages, and foods high in saturated and trans fats.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Aim to achieve and maintain a healthy weight by balancing calorie intake with physical activity. Excess weight, particularly around the abdomen, increases the risk of heart disease and other health conditions.
Manage Stress
Practice stress-reducing techniques such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, yoga, or spending time with loved ones to help lower stress levels. Chronic stress can contribute to high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease.
Get Quality Sleep
Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. Poor sleep quality and insufficient sleep have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and other health issues.
Quit Smoking
If you smoke, quitting is one of the best things you can do for your heart health. Smoking damages blood vessels, increases blood pressure, and raises the risk of heart disease and stroke. Seek support from healthcare professionals or smoking cessation programs if needed.
Limit Alcohol Intake
Moderation is key when it comes to alcohol consumption. Limit alcohol intake to no more than one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. Excessive alcohol consumption can increase blood pressure and contribute to heart disease.
Regular Health Check-ups
Schedule regular check-ups with your healthcare provider to monitor your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, and overall heart health. Early detection and management of risk factors can help prevent heart disease.
Stay Hydrated
Drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated. Dehydration can strain the heart and affect its ability to pump blood efficiently.
Know Your Family History
Be aware of your family's history of heart disease and discuss it with your healthcare provider. Genetics can play a role in heart health, so knowing your family history can help determine your risk and inform preventive measures.
Regular Exercise
Engage in regular cardiovascular exercise, such as brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, or dancing, for at least 150 minutes per week. Also, include strength training exercises at least two days per week to improve overall fitness.
Types of Cardiovascular Exercise
Moderate-intensity cardio is any activity that gets your heart rate up into a moderate-intensity zone (between 64% and 75% of your max heart rate) for an extended period of time.
Click the button below to calculate your personal target heart rate zones, and make sure to write these down so you can reference them later!
>>Calculate Heart Rate Zones<<
You can split your 150-minute total however you like, although most people prefer doing between 3 and 5 days per week of 30- to 50-minute cardio training sessions.
Activities of Daily Living
Many activities of daily living also may count as cardio if you stay moving long enough (such as mowing the grass, vacuuming, tidying, or gardening). Even weight training can become a cardiovascular workout if you do many repetitions and take short rest periods. Honestly, any time you get your heart rate up, your cardiovascular system will get some benefit.
Steady State Cardio
One of the easiest ways to get in a cardio workout is to do what’s called Steady State Cardio, which involves doing something that gets your heart pumping at a consistent pace for at least 10 minutes. Choose an activity that involves moving the big muscles in a rhythmic pattern like jogging, biking, hiking, or using a cardio machine at the gym (i.e., treadmill, elliptical, rower, stair climber, etc).
Circuit Training
Circuits are another popular style of high-intensity training, although you can certainly do circuit training at moderate intensity as well. In circuit training, you alternate between a group of exercises for a set number of rounds. For example, you can do a circuit like the one below 5 times for about 9 minutes:
1) 25 seconds Jumping Jacks, 10 seconds of rest
2) 25 seconds Bodyweight Squats, 10 seconds of rest
3) 25 seconds Mountain Climbers, 10 seconds of rest
High-Intensity Interval Training
One popular style of high-intensity cardio is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). For this style of training, you alternate between periods of vigorous activity with your heart rate in the high-intensity zone (between 76% and 93% of your max heart rate) and periods of rest or active recovery bringing your heart rate back down into the moderate zone (between 64% to 75% max heart rate).
You can turn any exercise into a HIIT workout! For example, you can do a HIIT speed-walk workout by alternating between 30-second periods of speed walking and 2-minute periods of slower walking for a total of 20 minutes. You can also do what’s called a Tabata, alternating between 20 seconds of any exercise (like jumping jacks or squats) and 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds.
Monitoring Your Intensity
Use a heart rate monitor, a fitness tracking device, or track manually while you are exercising to ensure that your heart rate is in the right zone. Check your heart rate every few minutes while you exercise.
Alternatively, you can monitor your exercise intensity by doing what’s called the Talking Test. For the talking test, try speaking a nursery rhyme, the pledge of allegiance, or talk with a friend. Then try to sing a few lines of a song.
👉 At the moderate-intensity level, you should be able to talk in full sentences but you should not be able to sing.
👉 At the high-intensity level, you should be able to talk in just a few words at a time (if you can’t talk at all, your intensity is too high–slow down or use less resistance to come back to where you can talk again).
A note on high-intensity
Keep in mind that doing too much high-intensity exercise can keep your body in an inflammatory state and weaken your immune system—making you more susceptible to illness. Experts recommend no more than approximately 40-50 minutes of intensity above 85 percent per week, and not more than 30-40 minutes cumulative time per week with your heart rate above 90 percent to prevent symptoms of overreaching.
A note on fat Loss
If your goal is fat loss, keep in mind that some activities burn more calories than others depending on how much effort you exert or how quickly you move. Click here to see a list of different activities and the number of calories they burn.
No matter what activities you do for your weekly cardio, try to find something that you enjoy—or at least something you don’t hate! The more you look forward to your cardio activity, the more likely you’ll stick to doing it consistently.
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ABOUT JAYD HARRISON
Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains) is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media:
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