Matters of the Heart

To have a healthy and fit heart, according to Kirsty Green, a personal trainer's overview on the matters of the Heart. Your heart is a muscle and like all other muscles in the body, it needs to be flexed to stay healthy and functional. Strangely, we don't often think of the heart in these terms. February, the month most associated with matters of the heart, may be over now but it's still worth reminding ourselves how important a healthy heart is. Amazingly, each day your hearts beats about 100,000 times and just like our limbs, facial and features and other internal organs, it is unique in shape and size to every one of us.

The size of your heart can change according to how you are using it. Just like your biceps, when you load the muscle repeatedly it gets bigger and so when you perform aerobic exercise, the heart increases its capacity to pump a greater volume of blood around the body to serve the body's demands for oxygen and nutrients.

Question: Whats the best way to maintain your heart health then?
Answer: Cardio - but not too much!
Yep: cardiovascular exercise in all its many forms such as running, cycling, swimming, dancing, aerobics and everything in between, all helps to keep our ticker in tip top condition.

Cardiovascular exercise also increases the size of blood vessels, giving the body more places for blood to flow and making the circulation more efficient.

On way to know how effectively your heart muscle is working is to measure your resting heart rate. Do this by finding your pulse on the wrist or neck  and then count the beats whilst timing yourself for 1 minute

60 or less = Good
61 - 80 = Average
81 - 100 = High but acceptable
101 or more = Abnormally high and not good!

So, if you want to improve your RHR, incorporate some regular cardiovascular exercise to your daily routine and measure again after one month. Unlike most other tests, in this case if you have a lower score, then you know you're improving and your heart is getter fitter!