The Benefits Of Cardio Training And Exercise

In a long-term study and research of the health of the people in the United States, the U.S. Public Health Service documented the chances of developing heart disease among the various groups in the population. Long before the any symptoms or signs appeared, epidemiological research can help to identify high-risk groups.

Among the highest risk factors for the population are male sex, age over 35, cigarette smoking, suffering from high blood pressure, have high levels of certain blood fats, and have a family history of cardiovascular disorders.

Other researchers have added to this list other risk factors: the compulsive, hard-driving, highly anxious personality. The greater the degree of severity, the greater the person’s overall risk.
These threats to the heart can be divided into two main groups: those beyond individual control, such as age, sex, and heredity, and those with factors that can be controlled, avoided, or even eliminated. Among those in the second group are what cardiologists call “the triple threat.” These threats are the high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and high cholesterol levels in the blood.

If you frequently smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, your risk of having a heart disease is twice that of a non smoker. If you smoke, suffering from hypertension, and eat a diet high in fats without any regular exercise at all, your risk is five times greater than normal.

How To Keep Our Heart Strong And Healthy

If these risk factors or threats endanger the heart’s health, then what will enhance its well-being and improves its odds of working long and well?

Obviously, quitting cigarettes smoking and eating a low-fat diet will help. The next best thing you can do for your heart’s sake is to provide what it needs, that is, regular exercise or a complete cardio training.

The heart is a muscle, or, more precisely, a group or “package” of muscles, quite similar in many ways to the muscles of the arms and legs. And just as regular exercises help to strengthen and improve limb muscles, it enhances the overall health of the heart muscles as well.

Since World War II, several large-scale statistical studies and research have evaluated the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease. One well-known survey made a comparison between 31,000 drivers and conductors of some bus companies. The more sedentary bus drivers had a significantly higher rate of heart disease than the bus conductors, who walked around the buses and climbed stairs to the upper level.

Cardio Training And Exercise Helps Improve Blood Circulation

The why and how behind these statistics were gathered explained by conducting experiments with dogs whose coronary arteries were surgically narrowed to resemble those of humans with arteriosclerosis. Dogs who were put on an exercise regiment had much better blood flow than those kept inactive.

The exercise regiment seemed to stimulate the development of new connections between the impaired and the nearly normal blood vessels, so dogs that exercised had a better blood supply to all the muscle tissue of the heart. The human heart reacts similarly to provide blood to the portion that was damaged by the heart attack.

To enable and facilitate the damaged heart muscle to heal, the heart relies on new small blood vessels for what is known as collateral circulation. These new branches on the arterial tress can develop long before a possible heart attack — and can prevent a heart attack if the new network takes on sufficient function of the narrowed vessels.

Cardio Training And Exercise Can Help Prevent Heart Disease

With all these facts, it brings us to a single important question: What should be done in order to prevent heart disease.

Some studies showed that moderate exercise several sessions a week is more effective in building up these auxiliary pathways than extremely vigorous exercise done twice often. The general rule is that regular exercise helps reduce the risk of harm to the heart. Some researches further attested the link between regular exercise and healthy heart based from the findings that the non-exercisers had a 49% higher risk of heart attack than the other people included in the study. The study attributed a third of that risk to people who lead sedentary lifestyle alone.

Hence, with regular cardio training and exercises, you can absolutely expect positive results not just on areas that concerns your cardiovascular system but also the overall condition of your health as well.

Benefits Of Regular Cardio Training And Exercise

Consequently, the benefits of merely engaging on regular cardio training and exercises can bring you more positive results that you have ever expected. These are:

  1. The threats of heart attack are lessened
  2. Enhanced heart condition
  3. Increase metabolism, increase the chance of burning calories, therefore, assist you in losing weight
  4. Improves and enhances lung capacity
  5. Helps lessen the cases of stress

Indeed, cardio training and exercise is the modern way of creating a healthy, happy heart and body.

1 comments

  1. Anonymous // December 5, 2008 at 10:23 PM  

    Haven't been exercising for quite a while. Great to read about the benefits of cardio training and exercises. It's a good reminder to get back on track again! Aileen.