A sedentary (inactive) lifestyle is one of the top risk factors for heart disease. Fortunately, it's a risk factor that you can do something about. Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, has many benefits. It can:

Strengthen your heart and cardiovascular system

Improve your circulation and help your body use oxygen better

Improve your heart failure symptoms

Increase energy levels so you can do more activities without becoming tired or short of breath

Increase endurance

Lower blood pressure

Improve muscle tone and strength

Improve balance and joint flexibility

Strengthen bones

Help reduce body fat and help you reach a healthy weight

Help reduce stress, tension, anxiety, and depression

Boost self-image and self-esteem

Improve sleep

Make you feel more relaxed and rested

Make you look fit and feel healthy

How Do I Start Exercising?

Always check with your doctor first before starting an exercise program. Your doctor can help you find a program that matches your level of fitness and physical condition. Here are some questions to ask:

How much exercise can I do each day?

How often can I exercise each week?

What type of exercise should I do?

What type of activities should I avoid?

Should I take my medication(s) at a certain time around my exercise schedule?

Do I have to take my pulse while exercising?

What Type of Exercise Is Best?

Exercise can be divided into three basic types:

Stretching or the slow lengthening of the muscles; stretching the arms and legs before and after exercising helps prepare the muscles for activity and helps prevent injury and muscle strain. Regular stretching also increases your range of motion and flexibility.

Cardiovascular or aerobic is steady physical activity using large muscle groups. This type of exercise strengthens the heart and lungs and improves the body's ability to use oxygen. Aerobic exercise has the most benefits for your heart. Over time, aerobic exercise can help decrease your heart rate and blood pressure and improve your breathing (since your heart won't have to work as hard during exercise).

Strengthening exercises are repeated muscle contractions (tightening) until the muscle becomes tired. For people with heart failure, many strengthening exercises are not recommended. (See below)

What Are Examples of Aerobic Exercises?

Aerobic exercises include: walking, jogging, jumping rope, bicycling (stationary or outdoor), cross-country skiing, skating, rowing, and low-impact aerobics or water aerobics.

How Often Should I Exercise?

In general, to achieve maximum benefits, you should gradually work up to an aerobic session lasting 20 to 30 minutes, at least three to four times a week.

Initially, exercising every other day will help you start a regular aerobic exercise schedule. The American Heart Association recommends working up to exercising on most days of the week.

What Should I Include in an Exercise Program?

Every exercise session should include a warm-up, conditioning phase, and a cool-down.

Warm-up. This helps your body adjust slowly from rest to exercise. A warm-up reduces the stress on your heart and muscles, slowly increases your breathing, circulation (heart rate), and body temperature. It also helps improve flexibility and reduce muscle soreness. The best warm-up includes stretching, range of motion activities, and the beginning of the activity at a low intensity level.

Conditioning. This follows the warm-up. During the conditioning phase, the benefits of exercise are gained and calories are burned. Be sure to monitor the intensity of the activity (check your heart rate). Don't overdo it.

Cool-down. This is the last phase of your exercise session. It allows your body to gradually recover from the conditioning phase. Your heart rate and blood pressure will return to near resting values. Cool-down does not mean to sit down! In fact, do not sit, stand still, or lie down right after exercise. This may cause you to feel dizzy or lightheaded or have heart palpitations (fluttering in your chest). The best cool-down is to slowly decrease the intensity of your activity. You may also do some of the same stretching activities you did in the warm-up phase.

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