Raise Your Heartbeat

Studies have shown that just as little as 30 minutes a day of activities that raise your heart rate can have profoundly positive health effects.[1] Also, as you age, a lower heart rate can make you feel cold more easily. In order to combat this, you'll need to partake in some particular daily movements. While there are ways to increase your heart rate without exercise, there are no health benefits to an increase in heart rate without the accompanying muscle work.

Steps

Low Impact Methods

  1. Change how you sit. Instead of just sitting in a normal chair, sit on an exercise ball instead. This requires your muscles to work harder to keep you upright and balanced. You can even forgo sitting, and stand as much as possible during the day. Even these small changes can affect your heart.
  2. Change how you get around. Instead of parking as close as possible to your work or the grocery store, park as far away as you can. Instead of taking the elevator to get up just one or two floors, take the stairs. Simply being more active will help you increase your heart rate.
  3. Stretch. Do common stretches after a bit of moving around to help keep your heartbeat above that resting rate. Good stretches include[2] calf stretches, hamstring stretches, and shoulder stretches.
  4. Walk around. Walk in order to get around or just go for a walk for the sake of a walk. Walking is a great way to increase your heart rate. You don't even have to walk very fast! Just a normal pace will get your heart rate up and your body working.
  5. Have sex. It sounds crude, but sex is actually very good at raising your heart rate. With foreplay plus sex, you'll easily hit the 30 minutes a day of raised heartbeat. Just 30 minutes of the activity will burn over 100 calories!
  6. Do yoga or tai chi. If you have trouble doing standard exercises, yoga and tai chi are good options. These will increase your heart rate and provide excellent low-impact exercise, helping to skirt weight problems and muscle or joint issues.

Medium Impact Methods

  1. Start jogging. Jogging (which is a relatively slow, exaggerated running motion) is an excellent way to increase your heart rate. Start with lower impact exercises before working your way up to this, though. Starting on higher impact exercise too quickly can cause injury to your muscles.
  2. Go on hike. Hiking will not only get your heartbeat up, but it will also get you outside and experiencing the incredible world around you. You can hike in local nature areas, or you can even hike around your city! All you need is a couple of inclines and a route!
  3. Swim. Swimming is a great exercise that has the added bonus of being gentle on your bones. Swimming is also great if you have weight or joint problems that keep you inactive because the water will redistribute your weight, taking the pressure off of your body and allowing you to move.
  4. Ride a bike. Ride a bike through your local neighborhood or in an area that is safe for bikers. You can even bike to get around, riding your bike to work or to your daily activities. You can go for a lower impact workout and keep to the flat roads, or you can give yourself a bit more exercise and look for some small hills.
  5. Jump rope. You might think of this as a kid's activity, but jump rope is actually incredibly good exercise. You'll be breathing heavy and feeling your heart pound before you know it! Just make sure you pick up a jump rope that is the right size for you. A child's rope will be too small and difficult to use for adults.

High Impact Methods

  1. Rock climb. Rock climbing, which can easily and safely be done indoors on your own or with a coach, is a wonderful way to raise your heartbeat and get in shape. Rock climbing can be a slightly more expensive exercise, but it's worth it (if you ask those who do it)!
  2. Go for a run. Progress from jogging to a full blown run. Having a track to run on is important here, as it will help you not only maintain speed but also reduce the chance of injury. Running can quickly raise your heart beat a tremendous amount.
  3. Do push ups. The gym class classic, while hard and uncomfortable, is actually really good exercise that will get your heart racing and build up important muscles all over your body. You gym teacher's weren't lying! Just make sure to do warm ups before doing exercises like this.
  4. Do squats. Squats are an exercise where you stand with knees apart and bring your butt down as if you're sitting in a chair. It's harder than it sounds to do it right! However, it's also an excellent exercise that will raise your heartbeat and improve your core muscles, helping you to sit up straighter.
  5. Do burpies. Burpies are like the love child of all those exercises you always did in gym class. Start in a standing position, jump down onto your stomach, do a push up, and then jump back into a standing position. Repeat these movements as quickly as you can. Your heart will be absolutely racing.

Warnings

  • Do not overdo it. To be safe, keep your heart rate within 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. This number ranges from 164 for a teenager decreasing with age to around 116 for senior citizens. Higher numbers than that could put too much stress on your heart organ.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123108679
  2. ↑ http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/fitness/multimedia/stretching/sls-20076840

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Raise_Your_Heartbeat&oldid=314078"