{"id":335357,"date":"2010-02-18T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/2010\/02\/18\/forget-the-six-pack-get-your-heart-in-shape-first\/"},"modified":"2010-02-18T02:30:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T07:30:00","slug":"forget-the-six-pack-get-your-heart-in-shape-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/335357","title":{"rendered":"Forget the Six-Pack, Get Your Heart in Shape First"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Filed under: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/category\/advice\/\" rel=\"tag\">Advice<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/category\/fitness\/\" rel=\"tag\">Fitness<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/category\/ask-a-fitness-expert\/\" rel=\"tag\">Ask a Fitness Expert<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"4\" vspace=\"4\" border=\"0\" align=\"textTop\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.thatsfit.ca\/media\/2010\/02\/healthy-heart-240.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dear Sarah,<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style>\n<p><strong><!--[if gte mso 10]> \n\n<style> \/* Style Definitions *\/ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:\"\"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:\"Times New Roman\";} <\/style>\n\n <![endif]--> We are often told that first and foremost exercise is essential to keep our hearts healthy. As I like to walk to work (it takes about 40 minutes and I walk briskly), I&#8217;m wondering if this is enough exercise to keep my heart in tip-top shape, or do you think I need more? And can you tell me how exactly exercise benefits the heart? <br \/>\nThanks,<br \/>\nLisa<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Dear Lisa, <br \/>\nYour heart is the most important muscle in the body, far more important than that six-pack you have been longing for! Unfortunately, heart health often falls off our radar, which is probably why <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/search\/?q=heart%20disease\">heart disease<\/a> is becoming one of the biggest epidemics &#8212; and greatest challenges &#8212; in our culture. According to the American Heart Association, 910,000 Americans die each year due to cardiovascular disease. That is equivalent to the death toll of 9\/11, every 27 hours. Canadians are not any better &#8212; the number of overweight and obese Canadians according to the Canadian Community Health survey is 59 percent. And yet, cardiovascular disease is the number one most preventable disease.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/2010\/02\/18\/forget-the-six-pack-get-your-heart-in-shape-first\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Continue reading <em>Forget the Six-Pack, Get Your Heart in Shape First<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/2010\/02\/18\/forget-the-six-pack-get-your-heart-in-shape-first\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to this entry\">Permalink<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/forward\/19354829\/\" title=\"Send this entry to a friend via email\">Email this<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatsfit.ca\/2010\/02\/18\/forget-the-six-pack-get-your-heart-in-shape-first\/#comments\" title=\"View reader comments on this entry\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Filed under: Advice, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert Dear Sarah, We are often told that first and foremost exercise is essential to keep our hearts healthy. As I like to walk to work (it takes about 40 minutes and I walk briskly), I&#8217;m wondering if this is enough exercise to keep my heart in tip-top [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3039,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3039"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}