Cardiovascular diseases are complications that affect the heart and blood vessels. They include congenital heart disease, heart valve disease, coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, stroke etc, with most of them caused by a blockage or semi-blockage of the blood vessels, and or inflammation and other damage from free radicals.
Exercises can help remove some of the causes of cardiovascular diseases and help ease the pain or symptoms of others. Hard intense exercises (anaerobic exercises), will not do as much for you heart and other cardiovascular tissues as steady aerobic exercises, which will train your heart to beat faster and hence become stronger. The following are three such exercises:
1. Jogging
Jogging is a great exercise to get your heart beating faster. It strengthens the heart muscles so it can pump blood better. The increased blood flow also scrapes up particles like platelets and fatty substances that may have been building up on the inside of blood vessels. This makes sure that some cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis are kept at bay.
Jogging causes more calories to be burnt. The body then breaks down fat reserves to replace the used calories. This reduces body weight as more fat is broken down, also meaning blood vessels will be widened as there will be less fat squeezing them as before. Diseases like coronary artery disease that are caused by narrowing blood vessels as fat squeezes in the walls, are sure not to develop.
Excess fat on the heart muscles are also burnt off when you jog. These excess fat could slow the heart’s beating and cause damage to heart muscles.
2. Swimming
Swimming works like jogging by increasing your heart rate and improving blood flow. The only difference is that it takes it is much easier on the joints, for people who suffer from joint pains.
3. Walking
Walking causes the heart to beat at a slightly higher, but regular beats, which trains the heart muscles.
Walking also causes more oxygenated blood to be supplied better all over your blood including to your heart, where it is able to use it at a faster rate to also train heart muscles.
image courtesy of: telegraph.co.uk, leisurecentre.com, mindbodycoach.org.
