Strengthen Your Heart This Spring

Exercise is vital in keeping your heart healthy. Your heart is a muscle and like other muscles, it’s strengthened through regular physical activity. This spring, make it a priority to stay active and take care of your heart with regular exercise.
There are lots of health benefits associated with exercise. It helps your brain and memory, boosts your immune system, is good for your muscles and bones, helps maintain a healthy weight, decreases your risk of chronic disease, and can even help you sleep better. Most importantly though, it is a key component in keeping your heart healthy. Here are some of the biggest heart benefits from regular exercise:


  • Your heart becomes more efficient. It’s able to better pump blood throughout your body by pushing out more blood with each beat. This allows your heart to beat slower and keep your blood pressure under control.
  • Your body’s tissue—including your heart—is better able to pull oxygen from your blood. When your heart is able to get oxygen more easily, it works better under stress and keeps you from getting winded during high-intensity activities.
  • Your blood will flow better in the small blood vessels around your heart. Clogs in these arteries can lead to heart attacks and exercise helps make sure the blood continues to flow freely.
  • Your HDL cholesterol, or “good” cholesterol, levels will increase. HDL cholesterol lowers your risk for heart disease by flushing out LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, that clogs your arteries.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Heart Association recommend 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity, preferably spread throughout the week. Aerobic activity, commonly known as “cardio”, gets your heart rate up and benefits your heart by. At moderate intensity, you’ll feel your heart beat faster and you’ll be breathing harder but you’ll still be able to talk.
You don’t have to go to the gym or run a marathon in order to achieve the recommended amount and intensity of physical activity. With the weather warming and signs of spring starting to pop up all over town, it’s the perfect time to start a new exercise routine.
Here are some examples of moderate-intensity aerobic activities:
  • Brisk walking (at least 2.5 miles per hour). Between the Norwalk Reservoir, the sidewalks in town, and the North Coast Inland Trail, there are plenty of options for a beautiful spring walk here in town.
  • Water aerobics. The Ernsthausen Recreation Center offers a variety of exercise classes in the water that are lower impact on your joints than other exercise options.
  • Dancing. On a rainy April day turn on the music and have a family dance party in the living room!
  • Gardening. It may feel like just a chore, but planting your flowers this spring actually can count towards your weekly activity goal.
  • Tennis (doubles). Grab a few friends and head down to Bicentennial Jaycee Park for a friendly tennis match.
  • Biking slower than 10 miles per hour. A leisurely bike ride is the perfect way to kick of spring and celebrate the return of warm weather!
Even with all these great activity options, those recommendations can still seem daunting. That’s OK. Don’t feel as if you have to reach 150 minutes a week right away. Start with smaller, more achievable goals. As you reach those goals and get stronger, you can increase your time until you have worked up to the recommended amount of activity. If you think of the recommendation as “all or nothing”, you may get discouraged and keep yourself from doing what you can to work toward a healthier lifestyle. Any amount of movement is better than nothing!

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