It’s exceedingly difficult and almost impossible to maintain a healthy heart without some form of mild aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is mandatory to maintain a healthy heart for living a long productive life. In fact, the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise to maintain a healthy heart.
What types of aerobic exercise could I be doing?
How much exercise is recommended weekly?
Is House cleaning a good form of exercise?
Now, you might be looking at 150 minutes a week and think to yourself that there’s no way you have time to commit to this with your busy schedule. Or maybe you do and have the time to exercise much more frequently than the minimal requirement.
“150 minutes of aerobic exercise equals walking thirty minutes a day, five days a week. And that’s it!” – Obi Obadike CFT, SFN, M.S.
What types of aerobic exercise should someone do? It’s important when doing any type of workout to work within your physical limitations. And please – never try to do something that you physically can’t do.
Let’s Get Physical!
Walking may be the easiest form of aerobic exercise that anybody can do whether you’re 19 years old or 90 years old. Walking is an aerobic exercise that will not put any unreasonable physical strain on your body.
A Stationary Bike is also a good aerobic exercise that is low-impact. Exercise bikes are commonly used by people seeking a low-impact workout or may also be recovering from injury. It’s much easier on your joints and it lessens stress on your back, knees, hips, and ankles. Exercise bikes have also recently been popularized by companies such as Peloton which are driving the on-demand fitness-streaming side of the industry right now. Incorporating exercise bike riding is a GREAT workout for your legs and glutes. So there’s really no excuses for skipping leg day when a good bike ride puts those legs to use while using the largest muscles in your body to circulate blood and oxygen around your body.
Swimming is another great aerobic exercise that is low-impact, and is good for people that are recovering from injury, undertaking rehabilitation or if you have limited mobility in your body.
House Cleaning and Gardening, contrary to judgment or belief, is another good aerobic exercise. Now, think about how cleaning and gardening will give you a great cardiovascular workout. So, if you must do some chores around the house, look at it as a positive thing because you’re now getting your aerobic workout from it. If you do heavy cleaning and gardening on the same day, you won’t have to go to the gym! Because you’ve done your daily aerobic workout for the day and that’s gotta feel satisfying on some level.
Jogging is a great aerobic workout if you don’t have any joint issues. It is better to do on a soft surface such as an all-weather track or even on the grass. Jogging on the road is extremely hard on your hips, knees, and ankles. And if you jog for many years on an outside road surface you will at some point in time have joint issues. So, try to limit jogging on that surface if you can.
Group Dance Classes is a type of aerobic exercise that’s FUN. And doesn’t make you feel like you’re even working out. And there is some form of soothing community-based feeling when you’re dancing in a group with like minded interests’ people.
Aerobic exercise is mandatory to incorporate into your daily lifestyle to sustain a healthy heart. Don’t neglect doing this because of laziness because it will be your redeeming feature as you get older. Trust me, it will minimize the health issues that come about as we age and can’t move the way we did when we were younger.
The importance of consuming a daily multivitamin is really predicated on how balanced your diet is. And if your diet is needing a vitamin boost, we’d love to recommend our Ethical Multivitamin to you. Because even when you’re doing your best to meet your daily exercise requirements, it’s hard to know if you’re getting all the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to perform at its best. Our Multivitamin is a balanced daily supplement you can trust – letting you get back to your busy lifestyle with confidence.
Take Care,
Obi Obadike
