The phrases are familiar: Listen to your heart. Have a heart. I love you with all my heart. About 100,000 times a day the heart repeats this monotonous task of survival yet many people barely spend the time to care about the heart.

A health expert has advised owners of gymnasiums to subject their clients to various medical tests including blood pressure levels before subjecting them to vigorous exercises.

Dr. Abdul-Samed Tanko who is the Head of the Cardiology Unit at the National Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital says there could be dire health consequences for people who do not know the status of their blood pressure before engaging in such exercises.

“…for people with such high blood pressures, if you rush into exercises like this without knowing…you can easily suffer some cardiovascular event,”  Dr. Tanko said at the Race 4 Heart walk organized by the Multimedia Group’s Joy Prime TV, Saturday at the University of Ghana.

The Race 4 Heart is a Joy Prime campaign aimed at creating awareness on a healthy heart. It was launched on February 1, in a bid to deviate from the conventional “I love you Valentine”.

A member of the organising committee, Gladys Owiredu said: "For the season of love instead of going along with everyone…we decided that we will launch a campaign about healthy lifestyle and a healthy heart."

Here are some Photos from the event: