This year’s Hilton Head Firecracker 5K is a timely reminder that making small changes in your daily life can mean a big difference down the road.
It starts with getting outside, said interventional cardiologist Dr. Timothy Alikakos of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in Hilton Head.
“You don’t need to go out and run a marathon,” he said. “Getting outside and taking a walk for a half-hour a day has a ton of benefits. Exercising improves the efficiency of the heart to get the blood where it needs to go. But you have to constantly push it over the long term.”
That means starting slowly and introducing consistent exercise to your day as you build up to a goal, like a 5K.
On Thursday, July 4, Hilton Head Hospital and PT Solutions Physical Therapy will provide first aid and light physical therapy to Firecracker 5K participants. The race starts at 8 a.m. at Jarvis Creek Park.
Not ready for an organized walk/run? Alikakos explains how we can all get a few steps closer and why that’s a smart move for many of us. Every year, more than 800,000 Americans have a heart attack, many of them preventable with basic lifestyle changes.
Talk with a primary care physician about your heart health.
When it comes to exercise and heart health, what are some of those small changes that can make a big difference over time?
This question comes up all the time in our practice. And I tell my patients, whether they’re young and active or quite elderly, that structure always helps, no matter their age.
When you have something you’re prepping for, you have structure. But we should all commit to at least a half-hour a day, three days a week, which can help you burn several thousand more calories and manage your weight. Plus, the adrenaline surge gets you feeling better and improves your outlook and your fitness. Best of all, it gets our patients outside and forces them to push themselves.
When it comes to your overall cardiovascular fitness over the long term, even a little bit counts. Just do it. Push yourself. It doesn’t matter how much you’re going to do, as long as you get outside and do it. The patients who are often most surprised with their results are those in our cardiac rehab programs. They realize they don't need to do that much to give themselves that bump and reap that benefit.