05/20/2022
Your heart muscle is not meant to be the only muscle that pumps blood throughout your body. Your heart requires help from the flexion of your other muscles. Flexing muscles moves blood.
With heart disease being the leading cause of death in the U.S. it is imperative to know that many heart conditions are preventable through simply exercising your muscles in regular strength training. Cardio training (i.e. running, jogging, bicycling, trampolines, etc) does not work every muscle group in the body. Cardio training is not enough. Slowly flexing your body's hundreds of muscles against resistance keeps blood pumping through them with ease and keeps the pressure of hard work off of your heart. Flush the lactic acid from your muscles with massage and lengthen them with assisted stretching.
To elaborate, the heart is a muscle; the same muscle tissue as the rest of the skeletal muscular system.
There are over 600 different muscles in the human body which are all combined in specific groups for skeletal movement (including breathing), paristalsis for digestion, and movement of the lymph system, cerebral spinal fluid, and the blood. They all work together BUT... without isometric exercise and full range motion of joints against resistance, combined with cardio exercise, many muscles that are not called on to function on a regular basis, simply deactivate and begin ageing more rapidly, weakening and leaving the muscles that ARE called on daily to pull the weight. This overworks the active muscles causing inflammation, tendonitis, and even an enlarged heart from beating too hard. This is why people who do not exercise have a resting heart rate of 80-95 beats per minute while those who do exercise have a resting heart rate of 60-75 beats per minute. The heart works so hard is has to beat faster even during rest. This grows the size of the heart muscle and is unhealthy. Some of the muscle cells in the heart will wear and slow their function; much like "knots" in our muscles.
The natural program of muscles is to hold a memory of their movement. For example, most people can tie their shoes with their eyes closed because the hand muscles remember how to use the fingers for the task. Second example: we don't have to relearn each day how to stand up and walk because our muscles hold their memory of posture and function of the task.
We all age, however, those who keep their muscles confused and ready for action potential, by regularly performing many different types of resistance exercises, along with cardio, will age slower than the people who don't. This is because all the muscles are being used together which completely circulates blood AND trains the muscles to stay fully activated for longer. That's not to say muscles don't rest. They usually rest/slow/release during sleep.
