How Regular Movement Helps Your Heart

When it comes to heart health and lowering risk of cardiovascular disease, exercise is among the top recommendations, and adding even a moderate amount of regular movement helps your heart. Exercise is key in lowering risk for heart disease because it both improves the cardiovascular system directly and can impact other risk factors.

Here are some of the ways that regular movement helps your heart, plus tips for adding more movement to your day.

Improve blood flow

Cardio exercise is focused on repeated muscle contractions that raise your heart rate and get your blood flowing. The repeated contractions strengthen the heart and blood vessels directly to make them more efficient at pumping blood. It also helps the muscles use oxygenated blood more efficiently, which reduces stress on the cardiovascular system as a whole. Over time, regular movement can help lower blood pressure and prevent damage to the arteries.

Lose weight

Obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease, and regular movement can help contribute to weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. Cardiovascular exercise is among the easiest to add to your daily routine, and even moderate amounts of movement can positively impact your health. Walking at a brisk pace or choosing stairs over the elevator can be easy ways to add some additional cardio to your day. 

Manage stress

Another positive effect of movement on heart health is managing stress. While exercise is a physical activity, it helps relieve both physical and mental stress. Long-term stress contributes to many aspects of heart disease, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure. By choosing an activity you enjoy and adding more movement to your day, you can help reduce the negative impacts of stress on your heart health.

Add more movement to your day 

We know movement benefits heart health in a big way, but it can be hard to know when, where, and how to start exercising. The general recommendation for exercise to impact heart health is 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous movement five days a week. Those 30 minutes don’t have to be all at once, either — 10 minutes of activity three times a day gets you to the goal. If you are new to working out, start small and build up a routine over time.

If you have questions about how to add movement to your day, reach out to your doctor or medical team for individual recommendations.