Don’t forget to warm-up
your heart!
Posted December 30th, 2006 at 7:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb
Section: Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise
Most people know that you have to warm up skeletal muscles to help protect them from injury, but many do not know that warming up the heart muscle also helps to prevent heart attacks in people with blocked arteries leading to the heart
Before you try to run very fast, you can protect your muscles from injury by performing a series of runs of gradually-increasing intensity to increase the circulation of blood to your muscles.
The same principle applies to the heart.
Angina is a condition in which the blood vessels leading to the heart are partially blocked so the person has no pain at rest, but during exercise, the blocked arteries don’t permit enough blood to get through to the heart muscles, causing pain. A study from the Quebec Heart Institute shows that exercising very slowly before a person with angina picks up the pace allows him to exercise more intensely before he feels heart pain.
If you have any suspicion of heart problems, always check with your doctor before you begin an exercise program or increase the intensity of your existing program.
This post is written by Dr. Gabe Mirkin, M.D.. Dr. Mirkin is board certified in Sports Medicine and has practiced for over 40 years. He has completed more than 40 marathons and was a talk show host of a nationally-syndicated radio program for about 25 years. For more articles by Dr. Mirkin, please check out: www.DrMirkin.com
***Note: We encourage EVERYONE to see a doctor before altering their diet, taking a supplement and/or performing athletic, fitness or other strenuous physical activity. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, instruction, opinion or advice contained in the content. Please also see our complete disclaimer.***
Tags: blood, circulation, exercise, heart, heart attacks, heart muscle, heart problems, injury prevention, muscles, pace, pain, prevention, skeletal muscles, warm up, warming up
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