Can a Personal Trainer Help Prevent or Reverse Heart Disease?

Everyone knows that a having a personal trainer or just exercising in general, can help you look good and slim down for swimsuit weather. However, did you know a personal trainer can also help prevent or even reverse heart disease?

The Heart Is a Muscle, Too!

It’s important to note that the heart is a muscle, too! So just like the muscles of your arms, if your heart is not continuously used and challenged, it will weaken and atrophy. When exercised, the heart pumps more blood through the body and works at optimal efficiency with little effort, keeping it healthier for a longer period of time.

The Dangers of Inactivity

According to the American Heart Association journal Circulation, as many as 250,000 deaths per year in the United States can be attributed to a lack of regular exercise. Along with smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity, inactivity is one of the 5 risk factors of heart disease. Those with low levels of activity are more likely to experience cardiac events like heart attacks or death.

Some Startling Studies and Statistics on Exercise and Heart Disease

• Men who reported more than 23 hours a week of inactivity had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who reported less than 11 hours, according to a University of South Carolina study.
• According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, sedentary people have a 35 percent greater risk of developing high blood pressure than physically active people do.
• The British Medical Journal found that women who went on regular walks raised their levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. This regular exercise correlated to an over 50 percent reduction in coronary events.
• Researchers found a 20 to 25 percent reduction in death rate of heart attack patients who participated in a formal exercise program. Some studies showed an even higher rate of reduction.
• A review of studies over the last half-century show that physical activity reduces the risk of coronary artery disease. The most physically active subjects generally had disease rates 50 percent lower than those who were inactive.

How Can a Personal Trainer Help?

Now that you know the overwhelming research that proves exercise helps prevent and reverse heart disease, it’s time to start an exercise program. Unfortunately, starting an exercise program can seem daunting to some and could even be dangerous to those already at risk for heart disease if done incorrectly. An educated and experienced personal trainer can help create a program based on your current health and fitness status and help progress your program in a safe and effective way.

At Philly Personal Training, all of our workout programs are designed and implemented by a staff of personal trainers with degrees in exercise science. This ensures you’ll be starting on a program with an intensity appropriate for your health and fitness needs. In fact, we are the only personal trainers in Philadelphia to require the entire staff to have degrees in exercise science, making sure you’re in the best and safest hands possible.

If you’re looking for a personal trainer in Rittenhouse Square, contact Philly Personal Training today to learn how we can help prevent or reverse heart disease for you!