April 21, 2025, 9:22 am | Read time: 4 minutes
How much training does a healthy heart need? Why are sleep, nutrition, and stress management so important? And which values should everyone keep an eye on? Cardiologist and FITBOOK expert Dr. Christopher Schneeweis gives important tips for healthy people who want to invest in their long-term heart health.
“I don’t have heart problems, why should I care?” If you are one of those people who think this or something similar, you should definitely read on now. The heart is our most important muscle—and the better we look after it, the longer it stays strong. Cardiologist Dr. Schneeweis from Cologne reveals what heart-healthy people need to know.
“For Heart Health, at Least 150 Minutes of Endurance Plus 2 Strengthening Sessions per Week
FITBOOK: What level of training do you recommend for people with a healthy heart?
Dr. Christopher Schneeweis: “Exercise is a very essential part of heart health. Or to help keep our cardiovascular system healthy at the end of the day. It’s about integrating exercise into everyday life. You should do at least 150 minutes of moderate endurance activity or 75 minutes of high-intensity endurance activity per week. In addition, you should also do strengthening exercises or strength training twice a week so that you have trained your whole body twice a week and all muscle groups have been addressed. This is not the maximum, but rather the minimum that should be demanded of heart-healthy people.”
Dr. Schneeweis: “This Fitness Value Correlates with Longevity”
Which values are particularly important in cardiovascular training?
“Training the cardiovascular system increases parameters such as VO2max. This value shows how much oxygen I can process per minute. The higher this value, the higher your fitness. This fitness value is clearly correlated with longevity, but also with general health. In addition, strength training increases the release of so-called myokines. These messenger substances in the muscles keep blood vessels elastic. But they also influence our cognitive system. As we can see: Overall, exercise plays a fundamental role in our health.”
What else should heart-healthy people pay attention to in order to keep their heart fit?
“We should also look at how we can reduce our stress levels. And we need to make sure we get enough sleep. We recommend 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. We shouldn’t cut back on sleep because this is an important recovery time during which our body needs to regenerate. By getting enough sleep, we give the body the chance to pause and recover from certain stressful situations.”
About Optimal Nutrition for the Heart: “Unsaturated Fats, Even in Large Quantities”
What diet can I use to promote my heart health?
“We should focus primarily on a plant-based diet, avoid highly processed foods and sugar above all else and cover our healthy diet with primary plant foods such as lentils, beans and the like. You should supplement your diet with healthy fats such as unsaturated fats from nuts, avocado or olive oil. And this can also be consumed in larger quantities. Above all, we should avoid saturated fats, such as those found in processed meat products. I also recommend including fermented foods in your diet and consuming enough omega 3.”
“I Should Check from Time to Time: Do I Have a Tendency Towards High Blood Pressure?”
What heart risk factors should I be aware of as a healthy person?
“As a healthy person, I should ultimately know: Do I perhaps have risk factors that I don’t even know about? High blood pressure would be an issue above all, it doesn’t necessarily have to cause symptoms. In other words, I should check from time to time: Do I have a tendency to have high blood pressure? That would be important. Then I should know my family history. So are there any cardiovascular diseases in the family, especially in first-degree relatives? And then, of course, I should also know what my cholesterol levels are. Are they high or are they normal?”
“Heart-Healthy People: Have the Lipoprotein (a) Determined Once in a Lifetime
Which laboratory values should people with a healthy heart have determined once or several times in their lifetime?
“Above all, the cholesterol values are very important here, i.e. total cholesterol as well as HDL and LDL. But also the apo-B-100. Lipoprotein (a) should be determined once in a lifetime. Also the triglycerides and the long-term blood sugar value, the so-called HbA1c.”
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FITBOOK Expert Dr. Schneeweis
Dr. Christopher Schneeweis is a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology. He completed his training at Justus Liebig University Giessen, Charité Berlin—where he worked for more than seven years at Charité’s German Heart Center—and the Bethanien Cardioangiology Center in Frankfurt/Main. With his podcast “Herzcheck” and as @doc_schneeweis on Instagram, he makes medical knowledge accessible to laypeople.