If you've heard a rule from your doctor about how much you should exercise, it's likely that the The American Heart Association (AHA) wrote it. One of the most respected and trusted organizations in the country, it spends countless hours each year researching fitness and its effects on heart disease. It also focuses on education about exercise and other factors, such as diet, that increase your risk. Exercise is one of the organization's most emphasized steps for achieving and maintaining heart health.
Significance
Maybe you exercise because you want to look good, lose weight or be fit. These are all important goals and exercise is necessary to achieve them all, but as far as the AHA is concerned, the most significant reason to begin an exercise program is to reduce your risk of heart disease.
Health Benefits
When you're inactive and eat a diet high in saturated fat, your body responds with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and waxy buildup in your arteries. These lead to heart attack, stroke, blindness and kidney damage if untreated. More than 35 percent of the population usually has some form of cardiovascular disease, according to the AHA. It says that even the smallest amount of exercise can improve all of these conditions, and, over time, completely eradicate symptoms in some people.
Prevention
The American Heart Association recommends regular exercise for people who don't have heart disease and who aren't at immediate risk as a means of prevention. Exercise keeps you at a healthy weight and keeps your heart and the rest of your cardiovascular system in good shape. If you adopt the AHA's recommendations, you can help avoid preventable types of heart disease and help lessen the symptoms of hereditary heart disease.
Amount Needed
The American Heart Association collaborated with the American College of Sports Medicine to create exercise guidelines intended to prevent heart disease. The two recommend that if you're between 8 and 65 years old, you exercise five days per week for at least 30 minutes a day. These 30 minutes don't have to be consecutive, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. You can perform these exercises in 10-minute sessions, three times per day. If you're unable to exercise five days per week, you can divide those 150 minutes differently, such as about an hour pr day, three days per week. The exercises you choose should be of moderate intensity, meaning they should be at least a little bit challenging to you but not overly difficult.
Types
Walking is a convenient, free way to get started on an exercise program. In fact, it's the exercise most recommended by the AHA. It's of low impact and moderate intensity, and most people can do it for at least a few minutes. Other types of moderate-intensity exercise include swimming, dancing, hiking, running, rowing and playing sports. Choose an activity you enjoy, so you're more likely to do it regularly.
