Our muscles are mandatory because more than any other attribute we possess, they determine the quality and quantity of our life.

That’s no surprise since nearly every activity we perform requires the use of one or more working together to complete a task.

With that in mind, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to tell you that the best protection you can give yourself is to strengthen your whole body and that includes the most important muscle of all – the heart. 

This mother of all muscles, this mysterious beating organ does a fantastic job of keeping us alive and breathing so we tend not to give it a second thought until the day disaster arrives in the way of a debilitating disease.

Heart disease is now the number one killer in the developed world and accounts for 40 percent of all deaths! Unlike our grandparents before us, we are now well aware that rising blood pressure cannot be blamed on age but is an indicator of silently advancing disease and this condition is not one that just strikes older people.

This raised blood pressure is the cause of much of the trouble that leads to heart disease. It starts in the arteries, the tubes that carry the blood and allow it to flow to the body’s organs, cells and tissues. Fatty deposits clog and narrow these tubes restricting blood flow and placing additional permanent strain on the heart system and damaging the walls of these plumbing pipes.

So, taking time to strengthen the heart is like buying health insurance. 

Strengthening the heart muscle requires more than a stroll through the park though. Certain exercises are empowered to properly condition the heart muscle and, not surprisingly, strength training is key. It is empowered to beef up the strength and resilience of this mandatory, life giving muscle.

It’s strength training exercise that beefs up the strength and resilience of the heart muscle and protects it from disease.

A strong heart can pump more blood through the body with each beat and continue working at maximum level without straining. Physical activity that raises the heart rate also serves to speed the circulation of antibodies and killer cells through the body and can raise white blood cell counts by anywhere from 50-300 percent after an exercise sessions.

Measure The Results

As overall muscle strength improves, the heart becomes more efficient and this can be measured by a reduced or slower resting heart rate. (The resting heart rate of those who exercise is slower because less effort is needed to pump the blood.) This is the number of heart beats per minute taken when you first wake but before you actually get up. Reducing this number by 10 beats per minute saves your heart from having to beat approximately 14,000 beats a day! This results in increased longevity (from a proper exercise program) that not only adds active and productive years to your life but lots of life to your years.

Heart health is mandatory if you hope to live a long, active life. Heart disease does not just happen and that’s why you need to give the health of your heart the attention it deserves now!

If you’d like to know how to get started with a no-muss, no-fuss approach to home-based exercising for solid fitness gains go…

Check out my quick and easy

Project Me Finally Fit program

At just 10 minutes in length, if you cannot find a way to squeeze this kind of effective workout into your schedule every other day, it’s likely there’s not another one in all existence that could take it’s place.

After all, most things can only be made so simple before they just cannot be made to work at all!

– Carolyn “The 10-Minute Sandbag Workout” Hansen

P.S. I even created a FREE mobile app for you to keep track of your sandbag workouts. With 4 built-in workouts of 7 distinct sandbag movements, you have 28 different exercises to choose from should you decide to create your own custom sandbag works.