Healthy Hearts

Healthy Hearts

This September we are participating in ‘Steptember’, which involves our team, led by Liz, walking 10,000 steps or more daily to raise money and awareness for the British Heart Foundation. World Heart Day is celebrated on the 29^th and it aims to draw people's attention to heart conditions, so we thought what better way to get ourselves involved than to raise money for a charity supporting the cause. If you would like to help us achieve our goal, or more!! Please donate today.

Keeping our hearts healthy means keeping our hearts happy!

One of the easiest ways to stay healthy is to keep active, now we know as much as the next person, that life changes and so do we, therefore exercise can become harder as you face challenges or grow older. Therefore, we have some of our favourite exercises, that are simple and easy to do right from your own home!

Just remember before you work out, make sure you warm up, this can be done just by a brisk walk and a few stretches. A good warm-up and cool-down are the most important parts of any type of exercise, and they can make all the difference.

1. Chair Squats

Chair Squats are exactly what they sound like, grab yourself a chair and start in the initial squat position, then stand up! It’s as easy as that, but just remember to hold your back in the correct position, keeping it upright and straight at a slight angle, and remember that the chair is beneath you for support, if you feel like you don’t need it and you can hover just above the chair, then go for it!

2. Seated Knee Lifts

Get yourself into a comfortable position on your chair, and raise one knee upwards, keeping your toes pointed to the ground, then switch legs. If you feel up to it, do both at the same time, this exercise is great for loosening up your legs and increasing movement.

3. Arm Raises

These can be done seated or standing, whichever you prefer, just bear in mind that this exercise means business! With arm raises there are a variety of reps you can do, the simple arm raise involves you having your arms by your side and lifting them, so they are in line with your shoulders, many people add weights to this to make it harder. Another version, which is a personal favourite, is to lift your arms out to the side, and either pulsate them up and down ever so slightly or rotate them so that your hands are making little circles, and then hold this as long as you can, this one is a burner, but it makes you feel great afterwards!

Another great way to keep our hearts happy is to improve our diet, which isn't as hard as you think. It's the little changes that make all the diffference, by adding more fruit and veg, swapping out unhealthy fats for healthy fats, by doing this you will reduce your chance of cardiac issues as your diet is healthier. One of our favourite recipes is a substituted Banana Bread Recipe, which swaps out sugar for other alternatives.