Exercise Tips for people with cardiovascular conditions

Heart disease is the #1 killer of older men and women.  Being physically active  is the best thing you can do for your heart health.  Exercise will lower your heart resting heart rate, lower your blood pressure and improve your fitness.

Important Tips:

• Aim for 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise 5 days a week.  You don’t have to do all 30 minutes at the same time—break it up if 30 minutes at once seems daunting.
• Wait 60-90 minutes after eating to starting exercise for the blood to have time to go from helping with digestion to the exercising muscles
• Monitor heart rate when exercising
• Your warm ups and cool downs need to be 10-15 minutes
• Work at a slower pace
• Be cautious in extreme weather conditions
• Watch for warning signs and symptom- dizziness, chest pain, heart rhythms, nausea

Heart Healthy Exercise Program:

High March

Benefits of the exercise:

Improves heart health, posture, stamina and hip strength

Tips:

• Try to get your knees to hip height when you march
• Keep your back straight and shoulders down

How long should I do it for:

2-5 minutes with breaks

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Squat

Benefits of the exercise:

Improves heart health and leg strength

Tips:

• Do the exercise faster to get your heart-rate up and slower if you want to focus on building leg strength
• Keep your back straight and shoulders down

How many should I do?

15

Video:

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Stair Climb

Benefits of the exercise:

Improving stamina and heart health

Tips:

• Check out the video for proper technique
• Look forward instead of down while stair climbing

How many should I do?:

•  Climb for 2 minutes

Video:

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This is a 12 week blog series discussing common medical conditions and exercise prescriptions for the older adult.

• Week 1: Dementia
• Week 2: Cardiovascular conditions (This post)
• Week 3: Fibromyalgia
• Week 4: Sciatica
• Week 5: Falls
• Week 6: Back injuries and conditions
• Week 7: Elbow injuries
• Week 8: Joint replacements
• Week 9: Shoulder injuries
• Week 10: Diabetes
• Week 11: Osteoporosis
• Week 12: Arthritis

If you would like a free consultation about how Vintage Fitness in home personal trainers could help your family member recovering from cardiovascular disease drop me a note erin@vintagefitness.ca

Good Luck!

Erin

Vintage Fitness

Click to Call    416-951-7978

Vintage Fitness is an in home personal training company in Toronto, Canada.  We specialize in energizing the lives of people over 50 with exercise.