How Much Exercise For Boosting Heart Health?
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Exercise is one of the key methods for lowering cholesterol – and blood pressure, my new concern — without medications. So to reduce my blood pressure and to continue to keep my cholesterol in check without any meds, I’ve been wondering just how much, how hard, and how often I need to exercise.
In researching, I found this nifty chart from the American Heart Association. It’s a little busy, but the key is the bottom-most graphic, which is for lowering cholesterol and blood pressure (how handy that they are together goal-wise!)
Apparently, to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, one needs to exercise for an average of 40 minutes at a ‘moderate-to-vigorous-intensity aerobic activity’ 3-4 days each week.
Which sounds like kind of a lot, people.
I mean, I can jog for 20 minutes before my knees hurt – but certainly not 40 minutes (I was awed when my 21 year old son ran the Chicago marathon in 3 hours and 49 minutes. I still can’t believe he did that / that anyone can run for that long!). So, um, 40 minutes of ‘moderate-to-vigorous’ exercise 3-4 times a week sounds like a LOT to me.
So obviously, the key question is – what is ‘moderate-to-vigorous-intensity’ aerobic activity?
To me, moderate-vigorous seems like it’d be exercise that gets my heart rate to hit at about 70-85% of my Max Heart Rate (for me, that’s 140-154 or so). If you want to know more about setting a personal heart rate goal, read How To Set A Simple Heart Rate Goal. But is that moderate or is that vigorous?
Luckily, the American Heart Association had a post that answered that exact question: Moderate to Vigorous – What is your level of intensity? The AHA defines moderate and vigorous exercise as follows (link to the article for more detailed, pretty interesting info):
Examples of Moderate Intensity:
- Walking briskly (3 miles per hour or faster, but not race-walking)
- Water aerobics
- Bicycling slower than 10 miles per hour
- Tennis (doubles)
- Ballroom dancing
- General gardening
Examples of Vigorous Intensity:
- Race walking, jogging, or running
- Swimming laps
- Tennis (singles)
- Aerobic dancing
- Bicycling 10 miles per hour or faster
- Jumping rope
- Heavy gardening (continuous digging or hoeing)
- Hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack
Whew. I can walk quickly for 40 minutes to count as heart-healthy exercise. Yay – that’s one I can actually do! But walking is kind of boring to me – and 40 minutes still feels like a lot of time.
So I need another option. One that’s vigorous but doesn’t eat into my day. Which is why I’m intrigued by High-Intensity Interval Training. In fact, this explanation of HIIT from Karen Reed of Positive Health Wellness was music to my ears, “Thanks to the non-stop, high-intensity pace of the workout, you can fit in both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic (resistance training) exercise in just 15 to 25 minutes.” For more details, read her article, “All The Benefits of High Intensity Interval Training Workouts.”
I’d rather ramp up my exercise plan than go on blood pressure or cholesterol meds, so I’m looking at trying out High-Intensity Interval Training and/or scheduling more – or longer – aerobic exercise into my week. How about you?
