When done well, exercise is known to reduce the risk of heart disease and even slow the disease process when you do it. If you have heart disease or are at risk for developing it you likely have heard the advice to exercise because it:
Reduces risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes
Improves heart function
Helps with weight management
Lowers stress
However, recommendations to exercise and the pressure to do it consistently can also cause stress. You may worry about having a heart attack from pushing too hard or doing it wrong, you may stress out about finding the time, fitting a gym membership in your budget, or knowing how to exercise without injury.
Mentally, the “I know I should” thought hanging over your head can keep you in a chronic state of stress, which is not helpful if you have heart disease.
The Be Well Now Method is an evidence-based approach that takes the stress out of exercising with conditions like heart disease.
In this article, I’ll outline how to turn the worry that keeps you in survival mode into a way to exericse that restores your whole person's ability to thrive, even when you have heart disease.
Why, because the stress state is the hinge point of health. That is the physiologic state when your energy goes away from healing, growing, and learning. This is why chronic stress is linked to nearly all our most common diseases, heart disease being number one on that list. That state is whenyour brain is searching the past and future for solutions to a threat and your body is ready to move. That physical tension and mental energy limit your body's ability to avoid heart disease.
Exercising to get out of the stress state is more than just moving more or exercising to check the box that you got it over with, or to fight a disease. This mindset only adds to the stress state.
Knowing how to move your body to shift your cells from the stress state to the well state, is Exercising Well. This puts you back in the driver's seat, allowing your body to put energy back into keeping your cardiovascular system working well and slowing the disease process.
Note: If you have had a heart attack, surgery, transplant, or another heart event, ask your doctor about going to cardiac rehabilitation. You will get information and guidance on exercising in a way that is best for your heart. This service is one of the most underutilized services in our healthcare system. Talk to your healthcare team to see if you qualify.
If you have completed cardiac rehabilitation and want to continue exercising or are looking to prevent heart disease, the information below gives you general on guidance to exercising sustainably. This approach heals and strengthens your whole person. If you are looking for more personalized guidance, click here to schedule a free call with me.
The Be Well Now Method ensures you are not starting, and thus staying in the stress state. Instead, it lets your whole person work together to exercise in the well state. When your whole person is involved, you have the best chance of preventing, slowing, or even reversing heart disease.
Step 1 Be: Use presence to start exercising with heart disease
When you get a diagnosis of heart disease or a family member has a heart event and now you have a risk of it yourself, a series of thoughts, images, and emotions change your body. That change creates a stress state. Your body is now a threat you have to worry about. Whether you are conscious about it or concerned about your heart hangs out in the background of your subconscious mind, that state contributes to the disease state.
Stress releases fats and glucose into your blood system, tightens your blood vessels, and tells your body to store extra fat around your organs. This stress state is not a state you need to stay in. The number one way to treat a chronic condition like heart disease is to ensure what you're doing for your health gets you out of that state. How?
The first step is recognizing what you are thinking and feeling right now.
Write down your thoughts about what worries you and the emotions that go with it. Just brainstorm. You dont need to find solutions right now, simply raise awareness of the thoughts and emotions that are affecting your physiologic state because awareness is the first step to change.
Now write down what is supporting you right now. It may be a helpful doctor, or a certain medication, or something you are doing already. Our brain has a negative bias. It's there to protect you and keep you safe. Inteintailly noticing what is going well right now balances out this primitive part of your brain by bringing a more evolved part online. When we react to fears, we start in the stress state. This balanced assessment before you even more lets you fuel your motivation to move from the Well state.
This is the presence principle of the Be Well Now Method. It gets your brain back to the present moment, relieving the energy drain of that past/future thinking in the stress state.
Look over your list and cross off anything you cannot control such as your family history. Now you have a list of what you can work on to support yourself.
Pause for a moment. Feel your breath. Notice how it is taking care of you, whether you pay attention to it or not. Let your body shift into a position that feels supportive. This way you are embodying presence and that sense of self-support. If you feel that restlessness of ready-to-move tension from teh stress state left in your body, allow it to move with a stretch or another gentle movement.
Step 2: Well: Be motivated by well-being not fear of heart disease
You will get a lot of advice about what to do and why you should do it when you have or are at risk for heart disease. Before you add those to your to-do list, pause to clarify your intrinsic motivation.
Notice what you know in your body, and your heart about what is most important to you about preventing or treating heart disease. Just notice what you know in your center about why you care about this.
This is the Passion Principle of Exercising Well. When you are doing something that matters to you, and that aligns with your values, it automatically gives you energy. Think about the energy you have when taking care of a loved one or working on a project you enjoy. This is your Heart-Energy. As you know it can make you do some pretty incredible things, even when faced with challenges.
Its no wonder then that evidence from motivation science models finds that basing what you do on your intrinsic motivators, rather than relying on extrinsic motivators like a reward or competition, leads to more lasting motivation and more enjoyment of the process of getting to a goal.
Take a moment to jot down what comes to mind when you think of having more energy “I want to keep my cardiovascular system strong so I can….”. List what you will be doing and why that matters to you.
Step 3: Now: Move well when exercising with heart disease
Now you have assessed where you are and what you want from exercise that matters to you. You are ready to apply exercise and movement science principles to ensure you are most effectively using your time and energy when exercising to keep your cardiovascular system strong and prevent disease or progression.
This is the Positive-experience principle. It ensures you are moving based on movement science so exercise has the best chance of leaving you feeling and functioning better now. Rather than causing stress and strain, your body tells your brain that exercise is worth repeating. By using your “so I can….” list as a guide of what specific movements you need to practice, you have the most personalized and motivating guide for getting the most from exercising for your whole person.
The movement science principles tell us that by staying present, you will get the most personalized information from your body in each moment about how much is enough. When exercise does not make your body feel better now, and you have guidance to adjust so it does.
There are three parts to exercising in a way that sets you up to feel and function better now and in the future.
First movement science says when you start with the three foundational movements your body can move with more strength and less strain.
Click here for a video that shows you how to do the three foundational steps for moving well. 1. Start in your natural alignment. 2. Support with your core, 3. Hinge to more stronger with less strain.
Next, ensure you are doing a balance of three types of movements. For every activity you want to do with more ease, your body needs mobility strength, and stamina. When your exercise plan includes each type of exercise, your body has the best chance of moving with more ease and less stress. Cardiovascular exercise will indeed keep this system strong, but all three types work together, to ensure your body can move well with less strain and more sustainablity.
Mobility: Mindfully stretching in small bouts of the day at a level that releases stress tension and inflammation throughout your day so it does not build up, prevents chronic stress. Mindfully practicing movement science-based stretching and balanced exercises also keeps your body ready to move, reducing stiffness. That means you are more likely to move throughout the day, a known habit to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Strength: Practicing function strength movements so each exercise is connected to the movements you need to do for the activities you listed in the Well Step above. This way each exercise has meaning and purpose and has the best chance of allowing you to do, and keep doing those activities as you age. As you progress the weights be sure you are breathing with each repetition. Holding your breath puts strain on your heart and blood vessels. Use Whisper Counting, saying each number out loud as you count the repetitions.
Samina: Practicing cardiovascular exercise like walking, swimming, dancing, biking, or any other activity where you are moving continuously at a level where your breathing feels light to moderate for your breathing. Do this for a duration and intensity that does not produce symptoms. If you have angina, exercising below the level that causes your symptoms whether that's pain, tightness, or shortness of breath, will strengthen your system without straining it. The same goes for joint pain, keeping it in a pain-free/reducing range allows you to continue moving stronger without pain. That might mean smaller lighter intensity bouts of a type that feels good for your body now, with active rest breaks when you feel pain or fatigue.
Start each of these at a level that is pain-free/ or pain-reducing and gives you energy.
It's a huge misconception that you will be sore and tired at the start of exercising. Soreness is inflammation. Inflammation is the precursor to diseases like heart disease. By starting each of these at a level that leaves you with less pain and more energy, your body is telling you it's putting energy into healing and preventing disease.
Plus, when it feels good from the start, your body tells your brain this is something to repeat. This is how habits form, not just by doing exercise, but by exercising well, from day one.
Following these principles of The Be Well Now MEthod lets you avoid the typical chronic stress that accompanies chronic illness and instead strengthens whole-person confidence you are Exercising Well to reduce the risk of heart disease.
If you are ready to be Exercising Well, not stressed, click here to learn more about how easy it is to start, and stay well.
Note: This information is not intended to replace advice from your healthcare team.