Heart-Healthy Workouts to do at Home
Working out is often a great way to de-stress at the end of the day and a good way to keep your heart health in tip-top shape. We often recommend doing at least 30 minutes of exercise a day with activity of any kind such as a vigorous walk or a swim but recent fears of contracting the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, have made many people on edge and avoiding places where they could contract the disease; such as the gym.
This begs the question, what to do you do if you don’t have a place to workout? Better yet, what heart health exercises can you do?
To help, we’ve created this list of exercises that you can do at home that will make sure that you maintain a heart healthy lifestyle.
Yoga
Yoga provides relaxing physical activity all year long and can easily be done in your bedroom, living room or just about anywhere in the house. You can even use yoga first thing in the morning to wake up slowly and get your body warmed up for the day. If you are new to yoga, try out a beginner level class or explore resources online to learn more about meditation and poses.
Running Alternatives
If you love cardio, you probably don’t want to give up that runner’s high, but you might not want to venture out into frosty conditions either. During the cold winter months you can get your heart pumping indoors with cardio workouts you can do at home, such as:
- Climbing stairs
- Jumping jacks
- Mountain climbers
- Burpees
- Jump rope
- High knees
- Play
Chances are your family and family pets are getting a little stir crazy inside the house, too. Play actively with your kids or pets for another cardiovascular workout option. Whether it is a game of hide and seek or a family dance-off, playing together is a good workout and great fun. Just be sure to secure the breakables and move that coffee table out of the way.
Body Weight Exercises
You can do body weight exercises in your house easily without purchasing any special equipment. Just perform three or four of these exercises three or four times a week to grow stronger.
- Push-ups
- Crunches
- Leg lifts
- Planks
- Squats
- Lunges
- Chair dips
- Calf raises
YouTube Workouts
There are a lot of workout routines on YouTube. You can search “workout,” or you can search by the specific type of workout that you would like. This eliminates the need to use workout DVDs, and it allows you to mix up what you are doing to avoid boredom. YouTube is also great if you want to do a traditional workout with push-ups, squats, and crunches, but are unsure on how to properly do these types of exercises. There are tons of videos that instruct you on how to use correct form as you exercise.
