Did you know that just one hour of walking can increase your life expectancy by two hours? Now they tell me.
If it’s Friday, then it must be time for education Monday. This week’s topic at cardiac rehab was Exercise Principles.
Not surprisingly, smoking is the No. 1 preventable risk factor for heart disease. Nearly every heart patient in my cardiac rehab class is a former long-term smoker. They all regret it.
If you’ve quit smoking, bravo! Just one year after stopping, you have cut your risk for heart disease in half. And after being smoke-free for 15 years, your risk is similar to those who have never smoked before. Yes, you read that right.
As recovering heart patients, it’s important for us to understand that the heart is a muscle, and the only way to strengthen it is through aerobic exercise. But it’s crucial to be consistent in your activity. As a lapsed Jazzerciser who has never won a prize for stellar attendance, I wasn’t surprised to learn that deconditioning sets in after two weeks. If you don’t use it, you lose it!
Our rehab exercise physiologist touched on various topics, including how much activity you should have (30 minutes a day, 5 days a week; or 60 minutes a day, 3 days a week). The latter is my current cardiac rehab schedule. If it works better for you at home, breaking up your time into 10-minute increments is OK, too.
To give you an idea of how many calories you may be expending while performing a range of daily activities for 30 minutes, here’s a breakdown (for someone weighing 150 pounds):
Bicycling 188
Dancing 150
Gardening 135
Housework 135
Ironing 75
Jogging 278
Mowing 202
Scrubbing the floor 210
Stair climbing 210
Vacuuming 112
Washing the car 112
Waxing 150
Weeding 150
Let’s see. Given the choice of gardening or housework, I’d much rather be outside. And since vacuuming and washing the car are equal, you’d find me in the driveway, hose in hand. Climbing the stairs to scrub the floor is a two-fer. Waxing or weeding? Tossup.
But ironing hardly seems worth the trouble, doesn’t it?
Have a great weekend!
(Copyright 2018)
