Scott Schwab:
The song by Roxette comes to mind for this subject. Our heart is the most important muscle in our body. If we do not use our heart and it becomes weak, we will feel the effects quicker than any other muscle decay. On average a heart will pump 100,800 times per day. There is not another muscle more involved with our overall health than our heart, so lets take a minute and have a heart to heart... no pun intended.
If our heart is so important, what are we doing to exercise our heart, and how can we increase our activity to make sure we have a strong heart? Another question that we must ask ourselves is; what consequences come from an unhealthy heart?
How can we increase our activity to build a strong heart?
The answer is anything that gets you up and gets you going. More specifically, it is recommended for a person to get 30 minutes at least of exercise daily. Other things can work in our favor like taking the stairs, parking further away and walking, choosing to go on a walk, jog, bike, run, swim, etc..... If we don't exercise, our heart suffers the most.
Here are some effects of no exercise on the heart:
- Higher risk of heart disease
- Higher cholesterol and fat levels
- Inflammation of arteries
- Calcified/closing blood vessels
Coronary Artery Disease. People who maintain an active lifestyle have a 45% lower risk of developing heart disease than do sedentary people. Experts have been attempting to define how much exercise is needed to produce heart benefits. Beneficial changes in cholesterol and lipid levels, including lower LDL ("bad" cholesterol) levels, occur even when people performed low amounts of moderate- or high-intensity exercise, such as walking or jogging 12 miles a week. However, more intense exercise is required to significantly change cholesterol levels, notably increasing HDL ("good" cholesterol). An example of this kind of intense program would be jogging about 20 miles a week. Benefits occur even with very modest weight loss, suggesting that overweight people who have trouble losing pounds can still achieve considerable heart benefits by exercising.
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