Strength training could also be just nearly as good as aerobic activity for reducing heart risk.
Any kind of activity that makes your heart work harder than usual — brisk walking, dancing, or cycling — will profit your heart health. But many individuals don't realize that targeted exercises to strengthen muscles throughout your body may help prevent heart disease.
Muscle vs Fat
Now, Dr. Lee says, there's more interest in taking a look at how more muscle mass can reduce the chance of diabetes and heart problems. Muscle mass naturally decreases with age, and most of the people replace lost muscle with fat. Muscle-building exercises may also help counteract this tendency.
Studies show that strength training can increase your metabolic rate (the speed at which your body converts energy stores into usable energy) by as much as 15%. You'll burn more calories, even once you're sitting or sleeping. One study found that healthy men who did 20 minutes of weight training per day had an age-related increase in belly fat (which is very hard on the guts) in comparison with men who did aerobic exercise. The same period of time spent in activities. In addition, muscle tissue is metabolically more energetic, so it helps control blood sugar and reduces insulin resistance. It helps prevent type 2 diabetes, a significant risk factor for heart disease.
getting stronger
Strength training could be done with resistance bands, small hand weights, or weight machines. Consider buying a set of resistance bands for those who don't want to hitch the gym, suggests Dr. Lee. They're light and low cost, and you possibly can do almost any muscle-strengthening exercise with them. Those that resemble large rubber bands with loops or handles at each end are sometimes easier to make use of. Many brands follow the identical progressive color scale, starting with yellow (easiest, least resistance), then red, green, blue, and black (hardest, most resistance). .
Sit with resistance tubing.
Starting position: Stand on the resistance tubing along with your feet hip-width apart. Bring the resistance tubing up behind your shoulders so that you just are holding the handles above your shoulders along with your palms facing forward.
Motion: Bend forward on the hips and bend your knees to lower your hips toward the ground as if sitting in a chair. Throughout the movement, press your weight back into your heels and keep the handles above your shoulders. Return to starting position.
V-lift with resistance tubing.
Starting position: Stand with resistance tubing under your feet. Stand along with your feet hip-width apart and your hands at your sides with thumbs up as you grab the handles.
Motion: Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you slowly raise your arms toward the 2 front corners of the room, forming a V as you extend the resistance bands. Do not go above your shoulders. Slowly return to the starting position.
Photo: © julos/Getty Images
Exercise photos by Michael Carroll