Get Moving for a Healthy Heart

Feb 3, 2025

We all know that we should take our heart health seriously, but sometimes it feels like we have to change our whole lifestyle to see the benefits. Luckily, this isn’t the case! We can make small, incremental changes that add up to big impacts over time. If you want to make your life better, consider adding more movement to your days. Your heart will thank you.

How does exercise help your heart?

Exercise benefits your heart in many different ways! The primary way that exercise helps your heart is by boosting cardiovascular efficiency. This means that exercise makes your heart stronger and able to pump blood more efficiently.

In addition to the direct impact of improved cardiovascular efficiency, exercise has far-reaching effects on the body. Additional benefits include lower blood pressure and cholesterol, an easier time managing weight, reduced inflammation, lower stress and better sleep quality.

Which types of exercise are best?

Here’s the simple exercise: whatever you enjoy and will do consistently. It’s beneficial to try and get both aerobic exercise and resistance training exercises every week. This doesn’t mean you have to take up jogging or get a gym membership. Anything that gets your heart rate up—brisk walking, dancing, or even vigorous gardening—counts as aerobic exercise. When it comes to resistance training, start small. Bodyweight exercises, such as chair squats, planks, or wall push-ups, are a great place to start. As you get stronger, you can progress to more advanced variations of the exercise or start to incorporate dumbbells into your routine.

How Touchstone Can Help

Touchstone Communities offer skilled nursing and short-term care, long-term care, post-hospital care, respite services, memory support and rehabilitation therapy for seniors. Our expert team of caregivers is skilled in helping our patients and residents live healthy, fulfilling lives. Contact Touchstone Communities for more information on how we help seniors improve their health, or call 210.828.5686 today.