
08 Nov A Healthy Heart Equals a Healthier Stronger You!
Having a healthy heart ensures longevity and a better quality of life. Aerobic and resistance training are the best ways to help keep your heart healthy. Aerobic training allows the heart to pump blood through the body making it stronger. Training your heart rate is a good way to know if you are working at a rate that is challenging your heart to promote healthy growth. The equation to determine your training heart rate is (220-age) x .8 (80% is the top range where you roughly want to be training at). Resistance training promotes muscle growth and makes activities of daily living easier. To determine whether or not you are challenging yourself when resistance training, you want to be lifting a weight and doing repetitions that are hard but causing no pain. I always say that if you feel like you can do 10 more repetitions than the weight is not heavy enough. Both of these types of training methods make the heart work harder than at rest, allowing it to become stronger over time. Just like other muscles in your body, the heart also needs to be challenged and worked on.
At Ms. Fit for Life, we train special populations, including cardiac rehab patients. Our trainer have experience in exercise prescription for people who have had cardiac events and are looking to improve their quality of life.