Typically, people who are overweight and lead a sedentary lifestyle are at risk for cardiovascular disease. But for some training athletes who want to get results too quickly, the gym can do more harm than good.
Diet
The first thing you need to remember: any diet is a harmonious balance of nutrients. What does it mean? When losing weight, you don't need to completely give up carbohydrates and fats. When gaining weight, you should not forget about fiber, plenty of water and vegetable oils. A balanced diet, and not just cutting calories, distinguishes a healthy athlete from a person who is harming his health.
The first thing dietary restrictions should begin with is reducing the consumption of trans fats. It is them, and not, say, beneficial lipids that are found in nuts, olives, flax or sunflower seeds.
Why are trans fats so bad? They increase the level of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which transport “bad” cholesterol into the bloodstream, leading to an increased risk of developing atherosclerosis. The second good reason to avoid foods with trans fats: consuming the latter significantly increases the risk of developing diabetes.
The other extreme is the trendy high-protein, high-fat diet. If your body traditionally uses fats as fuel and you digest fatty foods better than carbohydrates, there is no problem. Otherwise, too much fat in the diet (over 50% of daily calories), even if healthy, leads to decreased nitric oxide production, which in turn leads to problems with blood pressure.
Balance your diet based on age, physical activity, body weight and goals.
On average, an athlete's diet should consist of 35–40% proteins with a complete amino acid profile, 25–30% healthy fats, and 30–40% complex carbohydrates. However, the given values vary in each individual case.
Physical activity
It would seem that physical activity cannot harm the heart, but, on the contrary, will only turn it into a powerful blood pump. This is true, but with some caveats. According to research from the American College of Sports Medicine, to maintain a healthy heart, a person needs to spend 150 minutes a week doing moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes a week doing high-intensity training.
Those who play sports professionally automatically fall into the risk zone: if you train for more than one hour three times a week, you need to set aside a separate day, completely devoting it to cardio exercises.
The journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings cites a study, the authors of which claim that overuse of intense training has a detrimental effect on the condition of the heart. This is why doing CrossFit every day or doing weightlifting exercises at a high heart rate all the time is more harmful than beneficial.
Loads must be alternated. Even if 3-5 heavy strength training sessions per week or regularly running ultramarathons seems effective now, after a few years of working at this pace, the body's reserves will come to an end.
Mix up several consecutive strength training sessions with cardio, and vice versa. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to try new disciplines throughout the year or in the off-season if you are a competitive athlete.
Going to the doctor
Don't be afraid of doctors. Cardiologists are not dentists with 1980s-style drills. Get tested, do cardiograms, check your blood for hemoglobin and hormone levels - nothing is more important than preventing cardiovascular diseases. Fortunately, most of them can be prevented in time, and a well-designed course of physical exercises will allow you to live a full life even with congenital pathologies such as mitral valve prolapse.
Set your normal blood pressure (the once ubiquitous “cosmonaut pressure” of 120 over 80 may be the absolute norm for some or a sign of early hypertension for others), then measure it every day, not forgetting to monitor your pulse. Take such control measurements in a course of one to two weeks every three to four months in order to better study your body and understand how the state of your cardiovascular system has changed over a specified period of time.
Keep track of what appears on your plate, how you feel after physical activity, and what the blood pressure monitor and heart rate monitor say about your condition. Preventing a disease is always easier than treating it.
Not all physical activity is suitable for heart training, especially if your health is not very good and you are no longer young. But there are universal exercises that combine safety, effectiveness and ease of implementation.
Moderation and accuracy
To strengthen the heart and blood vessels, dynamic exercise is very useful, especially in the fresh air - jogging, skating, skiing, cycling, swimming, water aerobics. But it is better for heart patients to forget about static, strength exercises, since they not only overload the spine and joints, but also contribute to an increase in blood pressure, which is dangerous in case of cardiovascular problems. Therefore, the gym is not for everyone. If you overwork the heart muscle, which is unprepared for high loads, it will not be able to pump the required amount of blood. As a result, many problems can arise, the most dangerous of which are hypoxia (lack of oxygen), as well as compensatory dilation of the heart vessels and hypertrophy of the heart muscle.
But even when practicing heart-healthy sports, the load should be moderate, at least at first. They should be built up gradually, but regularly, and each workout should begin and end with heart rate monitoring.
To each his own
Even after a heart attack, you should not give up on movement. After all, correctly chosen physical activity is one of the important conditions for recovery. It is not for nothing that while still in a hospital bed, patients, under the guidance of a doctor, begin to perform various exercises, then walk around the ward. And after discharge they are sent to exercise therapy rooms at clinics or sanatoriums. Therapeutic exercise for diseases of the cardiovascular system strengthens the heart muscle, increases its contractility, increases blood circulation, reduces cholesterol levels, and reduces the risk of blood clots. Good blood flow massages the walls of blood vessels, making them more elastic. All this is an excellent prevention of vascular atherosclerosis - the main cause of heart disease.
By the way, it has been proven that if you perform therapeutic exercises for a year after a heart attack, the mortality rate in the first year is reduced by 25%!
As for playing sports for those who have suffered a heart attack, a strictly individual approach is necessary, otherwise a new attack can be provoked. The statistics are inexorable: 70% of recurrent heart attacks occur within 3 years after the first. Therefore, there is no need to argue with doctors: what motor regimen they recommend is the one that must be followed. Depending on the degree of heart damage, for some patients the doctor may allow moderate exercise shortly after discharge from the hospital, while for others he will strictly prohibit even walking at a fast pace.
When choosing a training regimen, you should not rely on your own well-being, because this is a biased indicator. Thus, according to a study by scientists from the Kyiv Institute of Medical Problems of Physical Education, 14% of recreational joggers who never complained of heart problems were found to have serious myocardial problems, which were revealed only during a medical examination.
Let's pump up the main muscle
When performing gymnastics, it is important for people with cardiovascular problems to adhere to certain rules:
Even if you feel well, you should not sharply increase the load. And if suddenly something hurts or tingles somewhere, shortness of breath appears - you must immediately stop doing the exercises. If it doesn’t go away on its own in half an hour, take nitroglycerin and see a doctor immediately;
Gymnastics can be started only one and a half to two hours after eating.
Before, during and after exercise, you need to monitor your heart rate. Even by the end of the workout, it should not exceed 120 beats per minute. And after 5 minutes of rest it should return to its original value.
Get ready to exercise!
There are several options for gymnastics that are useful for heart problems. Here's one of them.
1. Starting position - sitting. Feet together, arms down. Alternately raise your arms up as you inhale, lower your arms as you exhale.
Raise each arm 5 times.
2. Bend your elbows as much as possible and raise them parallel to the floor, shoulder-width apart, with your legs together. Make circular movements with your elbows 5 times clockwise, and the same amount counterclockwise.
3. Feet together, arms extended to the sides. As you inhale, bend your left leg at the knee and press it to your stomach and chest, helping with your hands. As you exhale, lower your leg and spread your arms to the sides.
Repeat 3-5 times. The same thing with the right foot.
4. Hands on the waist, feet on the floor shoulder-width apart. While inhaling, bend to the side. As you exhale, return to the starting position.
Do 3-5 times in each direction.
5. Feet on the floor shoulder-width apart, arms at your sides. Inhale - raise your arms up and bend towards your knees. The head should remain in line with the body. As you exhale, return to the starting position.
Perform 3-5 times.
6. Starting position - standing. Feet shoulder-width apart, arms down. As you inhale, move your right leg and arm to the side, hold for 2 seconds and, as you exhale, return to the starting position.
Do it in each direction in turn 3-5 times.
7. Hands down, feet together. At the same time, make wide circular movements with your hands clockwise, then counterclockwise.
Perform in each direction 3-5 times.
8. Hands on the waist, feet shoulder-width apart. Make circular movements with your body in different directions 5-10 times.
9. Hands down, feet together. Walk in place for 15-30 minutes.
Take care of your heart, what to do for this until it makes itself felt. Problems usually accumulate unnoticed, without appearing until a certain moment. Mortality due to heart disease is high on the list, with heart attacks and strokes becoming younger. That is why it is important to pay timely attention to the heart and blood vessels and strengthen them, first of all, through physical activity. Training the heart and developing endurance, stress on blood vessels - all these are important elements in the life of a healthy person.
Why is it necessary to stress the heart and blood vessels?
- A decrease in the amount of C-reactive protein, which favors the appearance of inflammatory processes in the body.
- Reducing blood pressure and triglycerides.
- Raising good cholesterol levels.
- Regulating blood sugar and insulin.
- Weight loss.
Inactivity provokes problems with the heart and blood vessels. Heart training occurs when the strength of contractions increases and the heart rate increases during periods of stress. At the same time, the blood vessels are also trained.
Exercises to train your heart
In fact, the range of such exercises is quite wide. Heart training is carried out through cardio and aerobic exercise. You can go jogging, ride a bike for at least half an hour a day, jump rope, swim in the pool, do aerobics and step, dance, or just go for walks for 20 minutes in the evening, and give up the elevator. It is recommended to adhere to the following rules:
- The optimal heart rate is one hundred twenty to one hundred thirty beats (not higher than 130 and lower than 110).
- You cannot arrange training sessions lasting more than an hour (for weak blood vessels - 30 minutes).
- Conduct these classes two or three times during the week.
Heart training by running is also beneficial. Don't turn it into a routine. Jogging three or four times a week for 20 minutes, monitor your condition. If you feel any discomfort, go for a walk.
Other factors
Stress, environment and nutrition gradually bring blood vessels into increased tone, which affects blood pressure. In such a situation, do not rely only on the help of pharmaceutical drugs; you need to restore full blood circulation, and above all in the capillaries. Training your heart and blood vessels will help you with this. Vibration exercises will be effective: in the morning in bed, raise your arms and legs, shake them for about two minutes. This is how vibration massage of the capillaries is carried out and lymph is redistributed, through which the body is cleansed of toxins and waste. It is advisable to repeat the exercise in the evening before bed.
- Stop smoking.
- Lose weight if you are overweight.
- Follow your doctor's recommendations for taking medications.
- Eat less salt.
- Sleep 8-9 hours.
- Eat a varied, wholesome, healthy diet.
“Panangin” nourishes and strengthens well, influencing metabolic processes in the heart, improving its functioning, preventing early aging of the myocardium, and preventing the appearance of atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and arrhythmia. It is recommended for healthy people as a means to strengthen the heart muscle and for the prevention of vascular diseases. Panangin contains potassium and magnesium, which can also be obtained daily from food. Eat spinach, seaweed, lentils, oatmeal, sunflower seeds, wheat bran, flax oil, fish oil to cleanse blood vessels.
Heart training: pulse and its indicators
How to determine the intensity of training to achieve results? We determine the maximum heart rate, it is individual. You need to subtract the number of your age from 220. The result obtained is your maximum heart rate. The heart improves at 50-60% of the maximum heart rate. At the same time, the condition of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems improves. A rise in heart rate to 80% of the maximum covers a larger number of blood vessels, pulmonary ventilation increases, and the size and strength of the heart increases. Training in the red line zone (80-90% of the maximum) is carried out in good physical shape, under medical supervision.
We are developing further
Don't forget that training your heart and developing your endurance should receive equal attention. All stages of increasing the intensity of exercises must be completed gradually, slowly, so as not to harm the heart and blood vessels and develop their endurance. The key to success is regularity. If you go to the pool or ride a bike several times a week, then morning exercises should be done daily. In addition to the previously recommended shaking and turning, we recommend a number of exercises for the heart and blood vessels:
- Walking on your toes, raising your knees high.
- Hands above your head in a lock, legs apart. Deep
- Hands to the sides, bring them together, slap your shoulders.
- Rotation of the arms forward - up - back and vice versa.
- Simulation of cycling in a lying position.
- Cross-shaped movements of the legs at a height of 30-40 centimeters from the floor in a lying position.
We remember: it is not the number of exercises and the intensity of the load that is important, but the regularity. The load should increase gradually. After it, relaxation is necessary so that the muscle fibers increase, and the heart muscle and blood vessels are strengthened and their endurance increases.
Strengthening the heart and folk recipes
It is very important that the heart muscle receives the necessary vitamins; training alone cannot do this. Here are some tips from healers:
- Mix chopped dried apricots, walnuts, figs, lemon with peel, raisins, honey. Take 250 grams of everything. Keep refrigerated. Take a tablespoon three times a day.
- Take a tablespoon of hawthorn for one and a half glasses of water and boil for thirty minutes. Drink a quarter glass three times before meals.
- Take 10 grams of lemon balm, St. John's wort, birch leaves, 30 grams of fireweed. Steam a tablespoon per 300 ml of water. Take a glass three times a day.
- Place a tablespoon of buckwheat in 500 ml of water and leave for 2 hours. Drink one glass three times.
- Pour five tablespoons of rosemary herb into 100 ml of vodka and leave for 7 days. Take twenty-five drops three times half an hour before meals.
And today there are even athletes among heart patients. However, for such people it is not sport that is more beneficial, but physical education. Moreover, it is simply necessary for many of them.
Proper exercise and exercise are beneficial for people with hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure and other heart diseases. They improve the quality of life, slow down the progress of the disease, and prevent the development of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and other serious complications. If there is no exacerbation or decompensation of the disease, then moderate exercise is not only contraindicated, but also necessary. But it should be understood that the level of load depends on the state of the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, pulse rate, and pain syndrome. And only a doctor can determine it for sure. Therefore, if you are planning to engage in physical education, it is better to consult with him.
How much and what is the best way to exercise? Here are some tips for hypertensive patients from the influential professional medical organization British Heart Foundation:
Try to exercise every day.
Your goal is at least 2.5 hours of study per week.
One session should last at least 10 minutes, and physical activity should be of moderate intensity. That is, your breathing rate and heart rate should be faster than usual, and you should feel warmed up. This happens when walking fast, cycling, or swimming.
Lifting weights and working with weights are undesirable, as they raise blood pressure higher.
A set of exercises for people with heart disease
Warm-up(7-10 minutes): brisk walking, light jogging, various stretches and bends. You can do all this by changing positions - standing, sitting, lying down.
Main part:
- Sitting on a chair
- Standing
- Feet shoulder width apart. Raise your arms up through the sides (inhale) and lower them in the same way, bending down and exhaling forcefully and waving your arms.
- Initial - hands on the belt. We alternately raise one arm up and above the head, tilting the body to the side.
- The original is the same. Turn your torso to the sides, then rotate your pelvis.
- Legs are wider. Alternately, squatting on each leg, we transfer the body load to it.
- One leg is in front, the other is behind. We bend the front leg at the knee (resting on it with our hands above the knee), transfer the body weight to it and spring 3-4 times. Then for the other leg.
- Feet at body width, arms forward and horizontally. We raise our legs to them alternately (straight or bending at the knee).
- Squats with arms extended forward.
Ending(5-10 minutes): slow walking with deep breathing, raising and lowering your arms. Smooth tilts and rotations. Stretching the body and limbs. Shaking arms and legs.
Each exercise is done 5-10 times, the tempo of movements and amplitude are arbitrary, depending on your capabilities and condition.
Expert opinion
Cardiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Clinical Functional Diagnostics and Scientific Secretary of the Moscow State Medical and Dental University named after. A. I. Evdokimova Yuri Vasyuk:
Exercise is beneficial for most patients with cardiovascular disease. Exceptions are mainly associated with periods of exacerbation of the disease or its decompensation. Physical education is important even with heart failure, which can be the outcome of any heart and vascular disease. In this condition, the contractility of the heart decreases, and it pumps blood worse; over time, the person experiences shortness of breath, swelling, and other symptoms. Physical exercise is recommended for all patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) if the disease is stable and there is no need for emergency treatment.
Studies have shown that regular physical training for three months improves exercise tolerance and improves the absorption of oxygen by the body. But these positive effects disappear after three weeks if you stop exercising. Therefore, patients with chronic heart failure are recommended to exercise regularly. This is recorded in the official “National Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of CHF”.
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