How Much Is Enough
According to the national guidelines for Australian adults , individuals should aim to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise per week . This equates to 30 minutes a day, 5 times per week.
As exercise professionals, we like to use the FITT principle to prescribe exercise:
Improving The Oxygen Flow To Tissues
Being aware of your heart rate during exercise means that youll look to targeted zones to reach your goal. In fact, weight loss and better fitness are easier to achieve with calculated results in mind. As a result of your efforts, your body responds by using oxygen more efficiently than before.
Oxygen dissolves and reaches the surrounding tissues with ease. Your organs end up with ample oxygen and nutrients at the same time. A healthy body will persist long after your last workout.
Target Heart Rate Exercises To Max Out Your Cardio
The faster your pulse, the better your results. Heres how to get major fat-burning, muscle-building benefits from your next workout.
Going for a jog. Shooting hoops. Running stairs. Pumping iron. These forms of exercise have one thing in common: They all do a great job of raising your heart rate. Thats a critical component to any worthwhile workout because exercising with a high heart rate does several things for you. First, it helps you lose weight. The higher your heart rate, the more energy your body will expend and the more pounds youll shed. Secondly, it helps you burn fat. Getting your heart rate up to just 50% of its maximum means that roughly 85% of the calories you burn will come from fat. So even if youre just walking fast or bike-commuting to the office, youre still getting fit.
So what target heart rate should you be hitting when exercising? There are actually five heart rate zones that experts focus on when designing workouts, ranging from an easy warm-up zone to an all-out sprint zone. The easy zone wont do much for your calorie burning, and the maximum heart rate zone is too intense to sustain for more than a few seconds. The intermediary zones of hard and very hard provide the biggest bang for your buck.
Read Also: How Does Dehydration Affect Blood Pressure And Heart Rate
Top Three Exercises To Increase Your Heart Rate
From Crossfit® to Zumba® to running, there are numerous ways of staying healthy and in shape, all of which are beneficial to your body in different ways. If you are looking to keep your heart healthy, it is important to engage in regular cardiovascular exercise.
Cardio exercise refers to anything that gets your heart beating faster. Aerobic exercise will increase your heart rate and increase the circulation and blood flow throughout the entire body. Not only is exercise ideal for strengthening your heart, but it improves the functioning of your lungs and enables your body to make optimum use of oxygen. If you do cardiovascular exercise regularly you might lower your blood pressure and decrease your overall heart rate, putting less pressure on your most important organ. Sounds like it could be worth that 30 minutes a day, huh?
Some cardiovascular exercises that increase your heart rate include interval training, dancing, cross-country running, skating, running, swimming, jumping rope, cycling, and skiing, as well as other aerobic classes. You also can get certain classes that combine a low intensity of cardio exercises with strength and flexibility, such as Pilates and Powerflow Yoga . Here is a closer look at three popular choices:
What is your go-to workout when it comes to getting your heart rate up?
What Speeds It Up
There are a number of factors that can influence your heart rate, both in the short and long term.
When you exercise, for example, your heart rate speeds up in order to pump more blood around your body.
According to the Heart Foundation: “Your body contains about five litres of blood, all of which passes through your heart every minute or so. However, when necessary, such as during exercise, your heart can pump up to four times that amount per minute”.
In the long term, maintaining good physical fitness will help to lower your resting heart rate by improving your heart’s ability to pump blood around the body more efficiently.
Day to day, things like caffeinated beverages, such as coffee and energy drinks, will increase your heart rate by blocking the chemical in your brain that causes drowsiness.
Similarly, when you feel stressed or excited, your body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated, causing your heart rate to speed up.
In contrast, when your body is relaxed, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated. This system conserves energy as it slows your heart rate.
There are also some medications that can have an effect on your heart rate, including beta blockers , antidepressants, and some over-the-counter cold and flu medicines.
Other underlying and potentially more serious complications that may affect your heart rate include infection , thyroid disease, heart arrhythmias , and other heart problems.
Don’t Miss: Can You Die From Congestive Heart Failure
What’s The Best Exercise For Weight Loss
Both aerobic exercise and resistance training burn calories, as well ashelp improve your baseline metabolic rate. The more muscle mass youdevelop, the more calories you burn, says Johns Hopkins exercisephysiologist Kerry J. Stewart, Ed.D. Together with diet, thats what leadsto weight loss, he says.
Best Home Workouts To Get Your Heart Rate Up
Wondering how to get your heart rate up at home? These heart-pumping exercises will make you feel and look amazing, all without leaving home
Getting heart-smart is a great way to improve your overall health. You can lose weight, increase fat burn, and boost circulation with a solid cardio workout.
When youre working out to bump your target heart rate into the right zone, its a cardio exercise. And cardio exercises are what were talking about here today. These are some of the best workouts to do at home, too!
You dont need expensive gym equipment to reap the benefits of cardio exercise. These nine home workouts will get your heart rate up to improve your health.
Don’t Miss: Echelon Heart Rate Monitor
Stand Up At Your Desk
Sitting for hours at a time isnât great for your circulation or your back. It weakens leg muscles and slows the blood flow in your legs, which could cause a clot. If youâre a desk jockey at work, consider a standing desk instead. It may take a little while to get used to, but getting on your feet works the valves in your leg veins, sending blood up to your heart.
Easy Workouts To Do At Home
During a regular training cycle, the most effective way to reach an athletic goal is to follow a plan that creates a specific stimulus and progressively works toward your desired result. But with all the uncertainty of the current global landscape, many of us are feeling higher levels of stress and daily strain, making now a great time to switch up your approach and focus on the process rather than the end result.
Even if you are stuck at home with limited equipment, there are still plenty of things you can do to exercise, stay in shape, and elevate your heart rate. Here are several simple and quick at-home workout moves to boost your cardiovascular health and keep your muscles toned .
You May Like: What Is Heart Stent Surgery
Foods That Lower Heart Rate
Diet also seems to have an effect on your heart rate. A cross-sectional analysis of about 10,000 European men without heart disease showed that eating fish was associated with a decreased heart rate. Fish consumption was still an important factor in lowering heart rate when the study adjusted for age, physical activity, smoking, and several other factors.
Most instances of a sudden spike in heart rate come from faster-than-normal impulses from the sinus node, the hearts natural pacemaker. This situation is called sinus tachycardia. In this case, the heartbeat is fast, but normal.
The notes that sinus tachycardia can arise from several different conditions, including:
- some medical and street drugs
- severe emotional distress
It results less commonly from:
- heart muscle damage from heart failure or a heart attack
- severe bleeding
Doctors address sinus tachycardia by going after the cause. For example, they may prescribe psychological care for anxiety and other types of emotional distress. Physiological conditions such as anemia or thyroid problems will require medical treatment.
In some cases, its impossible to link sinus tachycardia back to a source. This type of so-called inappropriate sinus tachycardia is a difficult condition to treat. In the long run, it can cause significant medical problems.
In other cases of elevated heart rates, the rhythm is both fast and irregular. These conditions are potentially serious and should be evaluated by your doctor.
Maintain A Healthy Weight
Dropping a few pounds and getting leaner can help bring down your heart rate. The more weight you carry, the harder your body has to work to move blood through the body especially if you dont have a lot of muscle mass, says Dr. Singh.
Embracing good nutrition and regular exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight. Plus, theyre good for your overall heart health. Consider it a win-win.
Don’t Miss: Rapid Heart Rate After Eating
Signs Of Poor Circulation
When your limbs canât get enough blood, your hands or feet may feel cold or numb. If youâre light-skinned, your legs might get a blue tinge. Poor circulation also can dry your skin, turn your nails brittle, and make your hair fall out, especially on your feet and legs. Some men may have trouble getting or keeping an erection. And if you have diabetes, your scrapes, sores, or wounds tend to heal slower.
What Exercises Can I Complete
The Resisted High Knee exercise is completed in a stationary position. Split your legs before beginning and position your kbands just above your knee. Raise your arms above your head and drive your knee towards your chest through the resistance. Your hands and legs will move simultaneously throughout the entire movement. As you become comfortable with the exercise, continue to pick up the pace to jump your heart rate. Be sure that you do not drop your chest and you maintain an upright position throughout the entire exercise. Your chest should go no lower than a 45° angle. The more movement you can create the faster your heart rate will go.
Read Also: What Factors Affect Heart Rate
Butt Shapers For Beginners
Everyone imagines having the perfect butt. Its kind of like the desire for thick, silky hair. You always want what you dont have.
But there are not too many people in the world who are happy with their rear ends. And if they are, they want to keep it in shape. This makes butt-shaping exercises one of the most popular workouts.
Enter butt kicks. Picture running, without the movement. Thats what a butt-kick exercise is. You can tone your glutes and boost your heart rate at the same time.
All you need to do is stand with your legs together, arms to your sides.
Make the motion of running by bringing your right heel towards your glute, then down. Left heel up, then down.
Repeat as youre pumping your arms to get the heart going. Do this in short bursts or push for more extended periods to increase endurance.
Bradycardia Causes + 9 Natural Ways To Improve Slow Heart Rate
If your heart beats less than 60 times each minute, you have bradycardia. This condition can also be referred to as sinus bradycardia. At rest, an adult heart typically beats between 60 and 100 times a minute anything lower may be a sign of an underlying medical condition. It can be a serious condition if your heart isnt pumping enough blood throughout the body.
There are, of course, exceptions. Young adults and premier athletes may have a resting heart rate of less than 60 beats a minute and this is generally not considered a health concern. Bradycardia symptoms can range from mild to severe, particularly when your brain, liver, kidneys and other organs arent getting enough oxygen.
Several conditions can cause bradycardia, including several potentially serious conditions, such as myocarditis, sleep apnea, lupus or certain medications. Bradycardia treatment depends on the underlying cause of the low resting heart rate but may also include the surgical placement of a pacemaker.
If you become suddenly faint, have difficulty breathing or experience chest pains, call 911 immediately.
You May Like: How To Raise Resting Heart Rate
How Exercise Can Get Your Heart Pumping And Improve Heart Rate
All the major muscles in our body need to be physically worked in order to become stronger. This is not any different for your heart because it is also a muscle. When we start moving, or partake in exercise, the heart muscle needs to work harder to ensure blood and oxygen can get to all the parts of the body in order to perform the task at hand. The stress exercise puts on the heart makes it stronger by increasing the amount of pumps it makes.
Exercise is whatever gets your heart pumping, so dont think you have to lift heavy weights or begin sprinting. Whatever activity you enjoy doing which increases your heart rate is a form of exercise even if its cleaning the house or other chores. The key is finding something you enjoy, so you can stick to it and improve your heart health.
Is An Elliptical A Better Workout Than A Treadmill
While ellipticals and treadmills have many overlapping benefits, there are also many key differences to consider when deciding between the two. Ellipticals integrate the muscles in your upper body, core, and lower body for a more total-body workout experience than the treadmill, and the gliding design of the elliptical is often better for people who experience joint pain with higher-impact exercises. Ellipticals also offer a greater variety of movements than treadmills, which is an added benefit many exercisers prefer.
Don’t Miss: How Long Does Open Heart Surgery Last
Why Is Your Heart Pumping Slowly
Sometimes our heart rates can be slower than 60 bpm, and although your first instinct may be to feel alarmed, a slow heart rate doesnt necessarily indicate a problem with your heart. Beta blocker medications, for starters, could promote a slower heart rate. Additionally, athletes or those who are physically fit may have a slower resting heart rate simply because their heart is strong and is utilizing oxygen more effectively.
If you want to improve the strength and performance of your heart, the secret is to get your heart pumping.
Who Should Be Careful About Their Heart Rate While Working Out
Most people can exercise without any limitations. They can do high-intensity exercise and feel good about the way it improves their health and fitness without any risks. But there are some conditions that can lead to health complications with heavy exertion.
Its always a good idea to visit a healthcare provider for a regular checkup if you plan to start a new exercise program. A high heart rate, which comes naturally with exercise, can strain the heart if your circulation is not performing at its best. People have an increased risk for a heart or circulation problem if they have:
-
A history of smoking can cause narrowing of arteries in the heart and throughout the body.
-
A high body weight can predispose someone to circulation problems and high blood pressure.
-
Diabetes is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
-
High cholesterol directly contributes to atherosclerosis.
-
Heart disease, like irregular heart beats, heart attacks, or decreased pump function , increases risk.
-
High blood pressure can lead to long-term damage to arteries. It can also make it harder for the heart to pump blood to muscles and vital organs during exercise.
Read Also: How Can A Heart Attack Be Prevented
How Long Does It Take To Lower Your Heart Rate
Plan to be patient. It can take a few months before a new exercise routine or other lifestyle changes affect heart rate. Just like building your biceps and triceps, it takes time for your heart to become stronger, notes Dr. Singh.
Focus on heart rate patterns rather than getting hung up on a specific number, too. Look for trends. For instance, how does your heart rate change after you eat certain foods or if youre dehydrated? Or did it drop after starting a new exercise routine or stress reduction program?
Those trends will point you toward healthier choices. Resting heart rate isnt the end-all be-all, Dr. Singh adds, but its a marker you should pay attention to.
What Are The Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise
- Improves heart and lung health by placing greater oxygen demands on the body, our cardiorespiratory system adapts by improving its oxygen capacity and strength, resulting in an improvement in fitness .
- Assists with weight loss and management fat metabolism occurs only in the presence of oxygen. Therefore, aerobic exercise is one of the main forms of physical activity to reduce fat mass and improve body composition .
- Reduces risk of obesity-related conditions like heart disease and diabetes performing regular aerobic exercise helps with achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, reduces bad cholesterol levels, maintains healthy blood sugar levels and reduces blood pressure .
- Improves ability to perform everyday tasks through enhancing fitness, aerobic exercise can make everyday tasks easier and improve independence and quality of life. It has been shown to be an essential factor in keeping individuals in their own homes for longer .
- Other studies have shown other benefits of aerobic exercise include delaying cognitive decline, improving mental health and anxiety, and management of pre-existing chronic conditions like kidney disease, diabetes and heart disease .
You May Like: Coronary Heart Disease Surgery