The most awesome muscle in your body!

Your heart! I'm not talking about the one that loves, although that is powerful in itself. I'm talking about the heart that keeps you alive.

The heart is the most important part of your body, but we tend to forget about it when we eat fattening foods or when we choose to be sedentary. The average heart rate for an adult is between 50 - 100 beats per minute. This means that it takes 50 - 100 beats per minute to pump the necessary amount of blood through your body to maintain oxygen levels. Stroke volume is a term used to measure the amount of blood pumped through the right and left ventricles of the heart in one contraction. The cool thing about stroke volume, is you can control how much blood is pumped during each contraction!!

How? It's easy. Cardiovascular exercise. Did you know Lance Armstrong's resting heart rate is 20 beats per minute?? His ventricles can pump out so much blood at one contraction that it only needs to pump 20 times in one minute to accommodate his need for oxygen! He has trained so much for his races that he also trained his heart.

And we can do the same. My resting heart rate one year ago was in the mid 90's. That's high!!! I wasn't doing much cardio and barely exercised. Within one year of intense exercise, my resting heart rate has decreased to 64 beats per minute.

So, what is considered cardio? Anything that raises your heart rate! Running, biking, jump roping, swimming, elliptical machines, etc. And if you are strapped for time and want to get cardiovascular exercise in for the day (good boy/girl!) , it can be done in only 20 minutes. And it has better results than running or walking at a steady pace. It's called interval training. Studies have shown interval training burns more calories than walking or running at a steady pace.

It's easy to do. One way you can do it is to get on a treadmill and walk for 1 minute at a steady pace, then increase your speed and incline and max it out for 30 seconds to a minute, then repeat until 20 - 25 minutes is completed. Don't forget to warmup and cool down properly. Check your calories burned when you're finished...it will be a lot! Check your underarms too, because you will be sweaty and stinky ;-)

Keep up your cardio and choose a healthy eating habit and your heart will thank you. Literally :-)

Well, that's your Monday update. If you are interested in a particular topic and want me to research it and write about it, shout me a holler and I'll make it a future post!

-Sarah