The other day a very close friend called me near tears after a visit to the doctor revealed she had pre-hypertension. She had noticed that she wasn’t feeling well lately, she was winded, and had difficulty doing normal daily tasks. Her concern was what it could lead to and she wanted me to help her figure out how to control or eliminate this issue without getting on antihypertensive medication. I assured her that she could absolutely reduces her blood pressure with regular exercise.
She inspired this post…..
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Hypertension is defined as consistently elevated arterial blood pressure. Although it is a common medical disorder it should not be taken lightly as it can lead to stroke, cardiovascular disease, chronic heart failure and kidney failure.
Some of the most common causes of hypertension are
- Diets high in fat (especially saturated fat)
- smoking
- excess weight
How To Know If You Have or are At Risk for Hypertension
- Your resting blood pressure should be less than 120 and 80 mm Hg (120/80 mm HG). If your blood pressure is over this number continue reading…
- Pre-hypertension means that your resting blood pressure is is between 120/80 and 135/85 mm Hg
I don’t want to bore you with paragraphs of test book facts. My goal for this post is to bullet point exercise guidelines for you to implement into your daily regimen if you are at risk. Before starting a exercise program after finding out that you may have hypertension, please check with your doctor and get a clearance to continue.
Basic Exercise Guidelines
| Type of Cardio exercise to focus on | 1. Stationary Cycling 2. Treadmill walking 3. Rowers |
| How often to workout out | 3-7 days per week |
| How Long to workout | 30-60 minutes |
| What type of Resistance (weight) training | 1-3 sets of 10-20 repetition 2-3 days per week. Circuit training or Peripheral Heart Action Workouts: (meaning training where you alternate between upper to lower body exercises) with adequate rests |
| Things to Consider when working out | 1. Don't hold your breath- make sure you have breath normally (holding your breath can impede the return of blood to your heart) 2. Do not grip weights too tight or clench your fist when training 3.Perform exercises while standing or seated. You don't want your head lower in elevation to your heart because this increase your blood pressure. 4. Stand up very slowly if you feel dizzy 5. Don't try to progress your workout to quickly . Take your time. Let your body adapt |
If you have hypertension you want to engage in low intensity aerobic exercise and try to avoid high intense exercise or high volume resistance training.
Try some of these moves
High Knees in place
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