How does Aerobic Exercise get your Heart Fit?

If you are a regular reader of the MissFIT Blog, you know that February is Heart Health Month.  As Katie mentioned yesterday in her blog, we are going to focus this month on ways for you to get your heart healthy.  Your heart is the engine of your body.  It affects everything else inside you.  If it is not functioning at it’s maximum performance, you may not feel it in your heart, but it may be noticed in a variety of other symptoms. 

So today, we are going to be talking about what you can do to start getting your heart IN SHAPE.  Yep you guessed it, AEROBIC EXERCISE.  Aerobic exercise is defined as constant moderate intensity work that uses up oxygen at a rate in which the cardio respiratory system can replenish oxygen in the working muscles.  Examples of aerobic exercising are running, cycling, swimming, walking. 

Most of our blog readers are very inquisitive readers who come to read our blog to be educated on various topics.  To meet your thirst for knowledge, I thought I would give you a LITTLE (I promise) science lesson on why aerobic exercise is good for your heart.  Please bear with me!

During aerobic exercise, hear performance is based on heart rate (how many beats per min.), stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped per beat) and heart contactility (the forcefulness of each heart contaction).  These variaables increase blood flow and oxygen supply to meet the demands of exercising muscles.  Progessivly increasing the length of your aerobic exercise triggers adaptations in the heart muscle structure.  The heart thickens and the left ventricle expands, improving heart function during exercise.  Consistent endurance exercise, such as 30-60 minutes, causes a long list of additional cardiovascular adptations and responses.

• Increased carbohydrate used
• Increased mitochondria (“energy factory” of cell) function
• Improved cell regulatory work of metabolism
• Increased fat oxidation
• Faster use of oxygen and fuel into muscles
• Increased stroke volume

Ok, so let’s put some of that into easier terms. 

• Your heart will get to be a stronger muscle.
• You will use up the carbohydrates that are stored in your cells which will cause your body to use fat as fuel.
• Your metabolism will be increased.
• Your body will burn more fat.
• Your heart will pump more blood per beat which increased the blood flow to your muscles and back to your heart.

See, I knew you would want to know that.  It makes more sense then as to why aerobic exercise is so important to maintaining a healthy heart.  Here are my top 10 reasons that you should consider increasing your aerobic exercise.

Aerobic activity can help you:

1. Keep excess pounds at bay
   Combined with a healthy diet, aerobic exercise helps you lose weight — and keep it off.
2. Increase your stamina
   Aerobic exercise may make you tired in the short term. But over the long term, you’ll enjoy increased stamina and reduced fatigue.
3. Ward off viral illnesses
   Aerobic exercise activates your immune system. This leaves you less susceptible to minor viral illnesses, such as colds and flu.
4. Reduce your health risks
   Aerobic exercise reduces the risk of many conditions, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer. Weight-bearing aerobic exercises, such as walking, reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
5. Manage chronic conditions
   Aerobic exercise helps lower high blood pressure and control blood sugar. If you’ve had a heart attack, aerobic exercise helps prevent subsequent attacks.
6. Strengthen your heart
   A stronger heart doesn’t need to beat as fast. A stronger heart also pumps blood more efficiently, which improves blood flow to all parts of your body.
7. Keep your arteries clear
   Aerobic exercise boosts your high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol and lowers your low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol. The potential result? Less buildup of plaques in your arteries.
8. Boost your mood
   Aerobic exercise can ease the gloominess of depression, reduce the tension associated with anxiety and promote relaxation.
9. Stay active and independent as you age
   Aerobic exercise keeps your muscles strong, which can help you maintain mobility as you get older. Aerobic exercise also keeps your mind sharp. At least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three days a week seems to reduce cognitive decline in older adults.
10. Live longer
    Studies show that people who participate in regular aerobic exercise live longer than those who don’t exercise regularly.

So that is the WHY in our discussion on Why you should exercise your heart.  Next week on Fitness Tuesday’s Blog, we will discuss the HOW.  You don’t want to miss it.  There are some new studies out comparing some different ways to exercise your cardiovascular system and which ways are the most beneficial. 

STAY TUNED!

Peggy Kresch

cPT, American Council on Exercise; MissFIT Complete Program Coordinator Find out More >