Exercise and heart health question.

[mbt9000]

Hello, I hope you can help, I had a heart scare which turned out to be anxiety and a panic attack, however, this made me want to start looking after the most important muscle.

I regularly lift weights however I didn’t do cardio. So my question is to look after my heart, apart from a healthy diet, reducing stress etc, would doing 3x week weights and cardio (30min) be enough to benefit and improve my heart and cardiovascular conditioning? My workouts will average between 50-60mins which would be 150-180mins a week.

Thankyou

[Sunnie2day]

Best to have an 'MOT' as soon as one can be organised with your GP before starting any increased cardio training. At the same time you can speak with the GP about a proper 'heart smart' fitness programme.

Only your medic knows all the ins and outs of your current (and past) medical history and condition, there may be reasons he/she will want you to 'do this but not that'.

Also helpful while you're waiting for that MOT is reading what the BHF has to say about cardio fitness and overall heart smart living. The following link takes you to the BHF healthy living page with links to very useful reading as you begin your journey to a healthy heart:

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

[mbt9000 in reply to Sunnie2day]

thank you for your response, the doctor said i can lift weights and has no concern, i just want to know if ill be ok to do what i said thats all regarding improving heart health. i lift weights on a push pull leg split, and do 30 mins of exercise bike at level 3 or 4 out of 8, and it gets me breathing heavy.

[Chappychap]

You've pretty much answered your own question, as I'm sure you've looked up the NHS recommendation for exercise and found it's a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.

Two points I would add though.

Firstly "moderate" is actually pretty high levels of exertion, you need to get your heart rate into a particular zone (your GP can help you determine what's the appropriate zone for you) and then keep it there. Let's just say walking the dog or doing a spot of gardening are unlikely to cut it!

Secondly, the 150 minutes doesn't include warm up and cool down periods, and these are absolutely critical. For example I have a 15 minute warm up routine and a 10 minute cool down routine. In other words it's nearly doubling the total exercise time commitment. I sympathise with people leading busy lives or raising families who find it hard to free up the time.

Good luck!

[mbt9000 in reply to Chappychap]

thank you for your response, the doctor said i can lift weights and has no concern, i just want to know if ill be ok to do what i said thats all regarding improving heart health. i lift weights on a push pull leg split, and do 30 mins of exercise bike at level 3 or 4 out of 8, and it gets me breathing heavy.