It’s a well-known fact that many adults in the United States suffer from high cholesterol. Fortunately, diet and exercise can prove useful in cutting cholesterol levels. Listed below are four common exercises that might be helpful for keeping your cholesterol in check.
Running/Jogging: If your joints are in good shape, you may consider picking up jogging as a regular exercise. While jogging may not sound appealing to everyone, it bears mentioning that taking a jog doesn’t mean you have to run at full speed around your neighborhood. Rather, it could be possible to lower cholesterol by jogging at a relatively slow pace.
Walking: Medical research has found that adults living with high cholesterol could also benefit from walking. An example of such work was a 2013 study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, which compared cholesterol levels between walkers and runners. The authors of this report found that, as long as both groups performed the same amount of exercise, runners and walkers enjoyed the same types of health benefits. Among these benefits were lower cholesterol readings.
Cycling: Those who live relatively close to their workplaces might consider riding a bike to work. Research has found that cycling may have a positive effect on cholesterol levels; one report, which appeared in the Journal of the American Heart Association, compared people who drove to work to those that cycled to their place of employment. Those in the latter group were found to be less at risk of developing high cholesterol. Swimming: If you like swimming, here’s another reason for taking a dip in the pool. A 2010 study, consisting of women between the ages of 50 and 70, compared the impact of walking and swimming on its participants’ health. As it turns out, swimming won hands down; the swimmers did better when it came to reducing body weight, improving body fat distribution and reducing levels of LDL cholesterol.
