All forms of physical activity are important for maintaining and improving your fitness, health and wellness. However, cardio exercise is one of the best forms of physical activity for lowering your blood pressure and improving your heart health. If you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor probably told you to get more exercise, improve your diet and in some cases prescribed you a medication to help lower it.
Your doctor may have told you that having high blood pressure increases your risk of having a heart attack and developing cardiovascular disease or stroke, but did they explain to you what high blood pressure is and why it causes a problem? If they fell short in this explanation I will provide some insight here.
What is Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is the amount of force your blood uses to get through your arteries. When your heart pumps, it uses force to push your oxygenated blood out to your arteries and capillaries providing them with oxygen. In other words it is the force your blood is moving throughout your body. If your blood pressure is high, your heart has to work harder to move the blood and oxygenate the cells in your body.
When taking your blood pressure with a blood pressure measurement device the cuff is connected to a pressure gauge. When the cuff tightens around your arm, it temporarily blocks blood flow in that part of your arm. Loosening the cuff allows your blood flow to start again so you can find the minimum and maximum pressure in an artery. Your blood pressure is then recorded as two numbers.
- Systolic blood pressure is the first number. It measures the pressure your blood is pushing against your artery walls when the heart beats.
- Diastolic blood pressure is the second number. It measures the pressure your blood is pushing against your artery walls while the heart muscle rests between beats.
What these numbers mean
- Normal is 120/80 mmHg or lower.
- Elevated is 120 to 129/80 mmHg or lower.
- Stage 1 high blood pressure is 130 to 139 mmHg or 80 to 89 mmHg.
- Stage 2 high blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg or higher for either number.
- Hypertensive crisis is higher than 180 mmHg and/or higher than 120 mmHg.
Why do you develop High Blood Pressure
Hypertension or high blood pressure can be a result of many different factors and some of these are out of your control. Your age, race and genetics seem to play a major role in determining your blood pressure. You may not be able to do much about these factors however, they are not the final determinates to whether you will be affected by high blood pressure or whether you will be able to successfully beat your odds.
Other factors such as having high levels of stress, being overweight or obese, a lack of physical activity, consuming a poor diet and taking medications or other unhealthy substances can also lead to having high blood pressure. By focusing on these factors you can have more control of your blood pressure levels and maintain or improve your health regardless of your age, race or genetics.
How to take back control
There are many ways you can manage and reduce your blood pressure.
- Eat a healthy diet that limits processed foods, fats and salt
- Reduce your stress levels by practicing meditation, deep breathing exercises and spending time relaxing and doing activities you enjoy.
- Ensure that you are getting enough quality sleep
- Limit alcohol and other recreational drugs
- Increase your physical activity with cardio exercise.
I will focus on using cardio exercise for lowering your blood pressure in the remainder of this post. Increasing your physical activity can be one of the best and manageable ways to take back control.
How Cardio exercise lowers your Blood Pressure
Your heart is a muscle. Just like strength training increases the strength in all of your other muscles in your body cardio exercise increases the strength of your heart. A stronger heart can pump more blood with less effort. As a result, the force on the arteries decreases and your blood pressure lowers.
The best way to “train” your hearth and increase it’s strength is with aerobic activity. “Aerobic” means with oxygen, and this type of activity requires more oxygen to be pumped throughout your body. Your heart rate will need to increase to pump more oxygen-carrying blood throughout the body to supply more oxygen to your muscles. Your breathing rate will also need to increase to bring more oxygen into the body and the bloodstream.
Physical activities that cause you to breath quicker and increase your heart rate are forms of aerobic exercise and will strengthen the heart muscle.
Some examples of cardio exercise are…
- walking at a brisk pace, jogging or running
- swimming
- hiking
- dancing
- aerobic exercise classes or routines such as Tabata, Step or HIIT classes
- playing tennis, basketball or pickleball
- cycling or riding a bike
- rowing or using an elliptical
How much cardio activity you need
The Physical Activity Guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity weekly to maintain heart health.
In both of these forms your heart rate needs to increase and your breathing needs to increase in order to begin “training” your heart.
In moderate-intensity exercise your breathing and heart rate will have increased and talking becomes a little more challenging. You can still say a complete sentence but need to take a break between sentences and carrying a conversation is difficult.
In vigorous-intensity exercise you can answer questions with one or two words but saying a complete sentence is very difficult.
The key to lowering your blood pressure with cardio exercise is to properly train your heart to get it to work harder. A leisurely walk around the neighborhood with a friend may do wonders at reducing your stress but most of the time is not strengthening your heart. If you currently have a heart condition you will want to get clearance from your medical professional first but then get out there get moving and get your heart pumping.
Need help getting started? Contact me at rebecca@vitalitytransformations.com or schedule a time for us to chat. Also be sure to check out the other resources I have available on this site.
