Throughout the year, a very popular goal is to exercise more. From New Year’s Eve resolutions to the desire to look good in a summer swimsuit, people vow to get moving every day to look their best. Did you know that this resolution can help you in ways other than losing weight and gaining strength? It has the power to impact other parts and systems in your body, including your ears and your hearing. Read on to find out the many effects of a cardio workout that can help hearing, too.
Why Cardio Helps Hearing
Cardio gets your blood pumping and, as the name suggests, is healthy for your heart. Your heart is important and essential for all the other parts and systems of your body.
By practicing cardiovascular exercise, you increase the blood flow throughout your entire body. This includes the blood that flows into your head and your ears. Extra blood flow helps keep your ears functioning well.
While cardio is important at any age, the age group whose hearing benefits the most from cardio is people over 50 years of age.
If someone over 50 is in good shape, they can hear as well as someone that is in their 30s. This should be an inspiration to get your body moving and exercise!
How Much Cardio?
You should participate in an aerobic exercise that works for large muscle groups at least 20 to 30 minutes per day, five times a week.
Beneficial Activities
These exercises can include bicycling, walking and swimming. This type of exercise helps you achieve and maintain cardiovascular fitness overall, so it not only helps you achieve your exercise resolution but improves your hearing as well. What about non-cardiovascular exercises? Let’s take a look at yoga and your hearing.
Yoga for Circulation and Ear Health
Yoga is great for your body because it helps to increase circulation in both your brain and your ears. Another benefit is that yoga also removes waste and toxins, and it improves nerve functions. Yoga is a great allover exercise that is helpful for all parts of your body and its systems.
The Lotus, Tree, Triangle, and Cobra poses are great for circulation. YouTube offers an extensive selection of great yoga videos for many different yoga poses. You can look for videos specifically designed to help with tinnitus or other afflictions that you may have in your body. Now, we’ll delve into the effects of meditation on your hearing.
How Meditation Helps Hearing
Meditation can be great for refocusing on what’s important, as well as taking some time out of your day just for yourself. In addition to being helpful to quiet your mind, meditation can also help your hearing. As you take deep breaths, it helps increase the oxygen and blood flow in your body.
Focus on Sounds
For a hearing exercise while meditating, focus on the sounds around you. Practice focusing in and out on different sounds, while trying to figure out which direction from where they come.
Where to Meditate
A place such as a park offers a great opportunity to practice hearing exercises while meditating. Not only do you have some sounds of people, but there are also many sounds of nature for you to focus in and out on as you pay attention to your immediate surroundings. Examine some brain exercises to help your hearing.
Keep Your Brain Active
By keeping your brain active, you also help your hearing. There are links between hearing loss and conditions such as depression and anxiety. Like your other muscles, your brain needs to work out to stay strong!
Sudoku, word searches, and crossword puzzles are great ways to exercise and workout your brain. These may help prevent brain atrophy. Keep active in both your body and your mind to help your hearing.
Additional Exercises for Optimum Hearing
Take a look at some other exercises to help your hearing so that you can reduce the risks associated with hearing loss that can occur as you get older…
Conversations in Louder Situations
Put the television or radio on at a normal level of volume, and then have a conversation with other people who are in the same room. Practice focusing on the conversation alone and ignoring all of the other sounds.
Identify the Direction of Sounds
You can do this with another person or at the park as discussed above-but what if you already have a minor hearing loss?
Focus on Ongoing Exercise
Even if you have some minor hearing loss, you can still benefit in multiple ways, such as with the aforementioned topics and techniques. Do the cardiovascular exercise for your heart, yoga for your body, and meditation for your mind. All of these still have multiple benefits to you, including the possibility of improving your hearing.
Protect Your Hearing
Whether you have a minor hearing loss or not, make sure that you protect your hearing. Be careful with the volume of headphones, and make sure to wear hearing protection at concerts or when operating heavy, loud machinery.
Consider a Hearing Aid
An over the counter hearing aid can be a great asset to you if you have a minor hearing loss. A hearing aid can greatly improve your life by enabling you to hear those around you better.
Looking for a hearing clinic near you? Visit our audiologist directory HERE
