Your heart’s health is essential to your well-being. The circulation of blood throughout your body is such a fundamental foundation that it’s impossible to underestimate the importance of cardiovascular health.
Our team at Advantage Physical Therapy in Falls Church and Reston, Virginia, can help with programs to aid various aspects of your heart health. From preventive programs to cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack or other cardiovascular event, we’ve got you covered.
If you’ve got the impression that physical therapy (PT) is only for recovering from musculoskeletal injuries, or for athletes, you’re only getting part of the picture. PT offers a comprehensive approach to several aspects of your overall health.
Let’s look at five ways PT can help maintain or recover your cardiac health as part of an overall heart-friendly lifestyle.
Every exercise, movement, and task is easier if your body works as it should. Balance, flexibility, and strength training are central components of PT treatments and routines.
The benefits of these components give you the ability to stay active and capable of pursuing improved heart health. Do you want to pick up your grandchild? Be ready for the next snow storm and feel strong when you are shoveling? PT can help!
Aerobic exercise can be an essential part of your PT routine. Activities like biking, swimming, and walking are all low-impact exercises that strengthen the heart and contribute to strong overall health in a natural and holistic way.
As your body becomes more efficient at pumping blood and supplying oxygen to the body, daily activities and tasks become easier too.
Adapting to or preventing heart disease requires a multi-modal approach to care. We can help with personalized plans for exercise and lifestyle changes that can manage two of the big risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
PT exercise also helps with weight management. Obesity and type 2 diabetes are both risk factors for heart disease, so achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is simply too important to ignore as a heart health strategy.
One of the best defences against high blood pressure and high cholesterol is an active lifestyle, and the side effects a not as intense as some medications!
Chronic stress causes chemical changes to your body that negatively affect your heart.
PT techniques like breathing exercises, mindful movement, and relaxation drills can be included in your heart-friendly plan, reversing the effects of stress, reducing anxiety and depression, improving your overall mood, and encouraging more restful sleep.
Cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack, heart surgery, or other condition is instrumental in your successful recovery, gradually returning heart health toward your pre-event condition.
This approach also works as a preventive measure to avoid these heart health issues from occurring.
Contact Advantage Physical Therapy to discuss a personalized PT heart health management plan designed with you in mind. If you are local to Reston or Falls Church Virginia, call or click to request an appointment with our nearest location today.
