Exercise is among the best ways to build your body effective protection against heart disease. For example, just one hour of endurance exercise per week can cut the risk of heart disease nearly in half. We offer tips on how to find fun in endurance exercise while doing something for your heart health.
Tips for exercise beginners and returners
“This is because regular physical exercise lowers blood lipids, blood sugar and blood pressure, dilates the vessels, increases the heart’s power reserves, curbs the appetite and reduces body weight,” explains Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Jürgen Becker, former chairman of the board of the German Heart Foundation. He therefore urges people to take advantage of the mild spring temperatures for sporting activities.
Anyone new to endurance sports should first consider which sports they really fancy. Those who find little fun in jogging can choose swimming, cycling, hiking or Nordic walking as alternatives, for example. The motivation for endurance sports can be promoted by attaching importance to variety, i.e. regularly varying the chosen routes as well as the loads.
Increase training slowly
Sport beginners as well as re-starters often tend to overestimate their performance when starting training, but this can lead to damage to health. A recommended rule of thumb is to jog, swim or bike just fast enough to work up a sweat but still be able to maintain a good pace. Thus, a maximum training duration of 10 to 30 minutes is often completely sufficient in the first weeks. The basic rule is to approach higher training volumes slowly so as not to overload the joints and the cardiovascular system.
Success can often be achieved with a relatively low training effort, as scientific studies have shown. For example, the risk of developing heart disease can be reduced by more than 40 percent with just one hour of jogging per week. From a medical point of view, four to five weekly training sessions of 30 to 45 minutes are considered optimal for achieving effective protection against heart disease in the long term.
Medical check in advance
Beginners and those returning to exercise should have a medical checkup before their first exercise session. For this purpose, for example, one can use the official health check at the family doctor, the cost of which is covered by health insurance every two years from the age of 35. “Even pre-existing heart disease is usually no reason to give up endurance sports,” says Prof. Becker. On the contrary, very many heart patients today are even expressly advised to do endurance sports.
However, people suffering from heart disease should definitely clarify with their doctor which physical stresses are ideal for them and which limits should not be exceeded.
