Why Exercise Lowers Your Blood Pressure And How To Make It Happen

Exercise has numerous benefits, and one of those is making the heart stronger. When your heart is stronger, it is able to pump blood around your body more easily — and that in turn lowers your blood pressure. Any type of exercise is good for your body, but you need to do aerobic exercises to lower your blood pressure most effectively.

Anna, who shared her story above, managed to bring her blood pressure down through sit-ups, push-ups, and pilates exercises. Those are all activities that will increase your muscle strength, and they are a great part of any work-out plan. You will achieve better results on the blood pressure-lowering front if you get involved in cardio exercises, however.

Examples of these are:

• Briskly walking

• Jogging

• Running

• Cycling

• Swimming

• Aerobics

• Team sports like soccer and basketball

• Vigorous cleaning and tidying around your home, or gardening

Any person who is hoping to attempt to regulate their blood pressure through exercise needs to be quite persistent. It is possible to notice some favorable effects of exercising within a few weeks. You may feel more energetic, may notice positive mood changes, and could even start seeing some weight loss or muscle development — depending on the type of exercise you are engaging in.

Seeing your blood pressure go down takes a little longer

The results will take around three or four months to show up. When they do, though, they may well be just as effective as blood pressure medication if you have mild hypertension. For higher blood pressure, you may still need hypertension drugs but you will probably be able to get away with a lower dosage.

Once you start reaping the benefits of your work out regime and are confident your blood pressure is at a healthy level (something you should self-measure with a blood pressure monitor regularly), it is important to keep on going. Many people are tempted to quit their exercise program because they have achieved their goal. This is as true for those people who were exercising to lose weight as it is for those who want to lower their blood pressure. Never forget that exercise is only effective at keeping your blood pressure down for as long as you actually do it. The moment you stop, your hypertension will show its ugly face again.