Long before any symptoms appeared, epidemiological research was used to identify people in high risk groups.

Among the highest risk factors are males over 35 years of age, high blood pressure, cigarette smokers,  high blood fats and a family history of cardiovascular disease.

There is also another risk factor: the compulsive, hard-charging, high anxiety personality. The greater the stress, the greater the overall risk.

These threats to your “heart health” can be divided into 2 main categories:

1) Those beyond your control, such as age, sex, heredity and…

2) Those that can be avoided, controlled or eliminated through lifestyle modification.

Among those in the second category are what cardiologists call the triple threat. These are high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and high LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.

If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, your risk of having a heart attack is twice that of a non smoker. If you smoke, have high blood pressure and eat a diet high in saturated fats without any exercise at all, your risk is 5 times greater than normal!!

How To Get a Healthy Heart Fast!

Obviously, quitting smoking cigarettes and eating a low saturated fat diet will help. The next best thing you can do for your heart is to give it what it needs:

regular exercise which includes cardio interval training.

The heart is a muscle. It’s actually a group of muscles, similar in many ways to limb muscles of the body. And just as exercise strengthens and improves limb muscles, it enhances the health of the heart muscles as well.

Since 1943, several large-scale statistical studies have evaluated the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease. One prominent survey compared 31,000 drivers and conductors of bus companies. The more sedentary drivers had a significantly higher rate of heart disease than the conductors, who walked around the buses and climbed up and down stairs to the upper level.

The results of these statistics were tested by experiments with dogs whose coronary arteries were surgically narrowed to resemble those of humans with atherosclerosis. Dogs who were exercised had much improved blood flow than those kept inactive.

The exercise seemed to stimulate the development of new connections between the impaired and the nearly normal blood vessels, so exercised dogs had a better blood supply to all the muscle tissue of the heart. The human heart reacts in the same way to provide blood to the portion that was damaged by the heart attack.

To enable the damaged heart muscle to heal, the heart relies on small, newly-developed blood vessels for what is called collateral circulation. These new branches in the arterial network can develop long before a heart attack — and they can prevent a heart attack if the new network takes on enough of the function of the narrowed vessels.

With all these facts we have, what should be done in order to improve heart health?

Some studies show that moderate exercise several times a week is more effective in building up these auxiliary pathways than extremely vigorous exercise done twice as often. Other studies show that vigorous exercise such as Cardio Interval Training is better in this regard.

The general rule is that ANY exercise helps reduce the risk of harm to the heart. Some researches further attest the link between exercise and healthy heart based on findings that non exercisers had a 49% greater risk of heart attack than exercisers in the study. The study also attributed 1/3 of that risk to a sedentary lifestyle alone.

So, by employing cardio interval training you can expect positive results not only on cardiovascular health but on your overall health as well.

This particular activity for the heart is a cycle of brief “repeated drills” of an intense nature followed by longer periods of recuperation (45 seconds to 3 minutes).

So it’s high intensity exercise for a short period (20 seconds to 1 minute)  followed by a break. Then, you repeat the cycle 2-5 times or so.

The benefits of engaging in Cardio Interval Training include:

1. Heart attack risks are lessened, if not eliminated

2. Enhanced heart function (i.e. better blood circulation, more blood vessels)

3. Increased metabolism, which increases calorie burning helping you in lose weight

4. Improves lung capacity

5. Helps lessen or eliminate stress

Indeed, cardio interval training is a fast and modern way of creating a healthy, happy heart and body in today’s hectic world.

Posted by: Bob Thomson, CPT

But I can’t help but wonder if the U.S. financial crisis will put a crimp in some (or many?) people’s best laid plans to lose weight and build muscle using a personal trainer.

After all, having your own trainer is a discretionary expense. It’s not a necessity like food, clothing or shelter. It just may not fit into the personal budget this year for some.

However, let me posit the following argument right here and now:

Getting fit – losing weight, burning fat & building lean muscle with or without personal training – is a necessity! That’s right, I said it’s a necessity. Why? Because your quality of life is so dependent on a healthy mind and body… It affects nearly every aspect of your existence:

• Lifespan
• Whether or not you develop a chronic disease and to what degree
• Vitality & energy
• Mental health
• Ability to perform routine activities of daily living

Being able to positively improve these areas of has MANY BENEFITS:

• Have more fun & live longer for yourself & those who love you
• Peace of mind knowing you’re reducing the odds of getting cancer or heart disease
• Quality ‘activity time’ with your children
• More zest and enthusiasm for life
• Improved sexual performance
• And so much more…

If you can’t find the time or have the discipline to get back in shape yourself, you must get outside help now! If you’re middle-aged, it’s not too late to reverse nasty things like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  Again, your life depends on your health and fitness. Getting back in shape is a NECESSITY – not discretionary – unless of course you don’t value your life as you should.

I hope you value your life… I hope you care about your children enough to get yourself back in shape. I hope you care about having more energy to tackle the up’s and downs of life.

Are you tired of being out of shape? Call (845) 223-8168 or email me today and I’ll help you  create a fitness and fat loss program that will give you the body and the quality of life you deserve. It’s time to get fit and healthy and look good doing it!

Posted by: Bob Thomson, Certified Personal Trainer in Dutchess New York (the Hudson Valley)

Tymor Bootcamp – Lose weight, build & tone muscle with my new bootcamp fitness program. This is a local area group personal training program. Coverage area: Dutchess County New York.

Straight Line Fitness – “The shortest distance between you and your dream body!” Get into and stay in great shape with my new personal training programs. Includes both on site and distance training programs i.e. Online personal training.

Posted by: Bob