Today we’re doing a cardio and weights workout for heart health.
Here’s why it is so powerful to do both cardio and weights in order to optimize heart health
Before you’ve ever worked, your heart is small, like a little balloon.
Every time your heart pumps it pushes the blood out into your body.
It circulates through the body, passes back into your heart where it fills up. Then, once again you push out the blood.
Before you started working out, your heart beat is fast, so you have more beats per minute.
This is because your heart fills up quickly because of the small heart.
When you do cardio you increase your blood flow volume.
The volume pushes down into the heart, and over time, much like a balloon, you create length inside of the heart.
This gives the heart length. which allows more room for blood.
It takes more blood volume to fill up that heart and it takes longer to fill up the heart.
You gain precious seconds before your next heartbeat.
The name of the game when it comes to cardio is to create that length in the heart. That way it takes longer to fill up, and takes longer before your next heartbeat.
What about weight training for heart health?
Well, weight training has a double effect.
1. It Decreases Blood Pressure Over time, which increases heart health
2. It Creates a Strong Heart Muscle
With strength training (or weight training) you created a decrease in blood pressure over time because you’ve created mini spikes in your blood pressure during your workouts.
While your blood pressure rises at first,it soon drops to compensate for the increase. Your blood pressure decreases over time.
The heart, being a muscle, has to become stronger to push back against the momentary increases in blood pressure. You’re working out your heart, creating a stronger heart that can push out blood that circulates quickly throughout the body.
The end result: A lower blood pressure and a stronger heart.
Combine Cardio & Weight Training for Heart Health
With cardio, you’ve got length in the heart. You decrease the amount of heartbeats that means you give your heart the rest that it needs in between each and every beat.
While with weights, you have strength and power to push the blood out. You’re decreasing your blood pressure and you’re increasing your heart strength. It’s a win-win all around.
Ok, so now that we’ve done this fun little science activity why don’t we get into the workout.
For this workout you’ll need weights, a chair if you don’t have good balance, and let’s get started!
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