Protecting Your Blood Pressure in Exercise

By David Jenkin

Blood pressure describes the pressure of circulating blood on the vessel walls, in layman’s terms the fiercer this pressure, the more abuse the vessel walls have to take and the greater the risk of vessel disease becomes. It is therefore an important indicator of health, and one of the reasons that whenever you attend hospital appointments they quite often like to take an up to date blood pressure reading. There are many things that raise blood pressure, poor fitness, anxiety, pain, smoking, stress, excessive intake of alcohol, obesity, excessive salt intake and genetics. You will have noticed that some of these are not modifiable, not in your control, but any that you identify as being relevant to you could be adjusted and you could see noticeable improvements in your blood pressure status.

One cause of blood pressure raises that was not mentioned was exercise. Blood pressure status will improve/lower over the longer term with regular exercise, but will temporarily rise during exercise for the same reasons discussed last month with heart rate – the beta system controlled by the autonomic nervous system reacting to stimulus changes. Here we discuss how blood pressure can be controlled in exercise with aerobic and resistance exercises:

Aerobic

When exercising aerobically, blood pressure will rise along with the heart rate but not at the same rate. This is because when exercising the vessel walls will naturally dilate to allow more blood through to cope with the demands of a faster rate, but a small rise is usually observable. Working aerobically at too high a level, for too long, could have a negative impact on blood pressure so my advice is definitely to ensure you are always training at a level you can cope with and not push yourself. Exercising regularly will open the door for you to explore more advanced cardio training in good time so there is no rush

Resistance

This is all about breathing, holding your breath and avoiding Valsalva Manoeuvre – trying to breathe out against a closed airway (imagine pinching your nose and blowing) as these will elevate blood pressure very quickly and could make you quite unwell. Always remember to breathe OUT when you are doing the work phase of an exercise (e.g. the pressing up bit of a press-up) and breathe IN on the non-work phase (the lowering down bit of a press-up), and keep this breathing regular for safe, effective exercise.

Martin Westby and I have co-authored a Self-Help Exercise Guide that includes a whole section on how to do establish this consistency effectively. To order a copy please click here.

Or alternatively you can email the magazine at office@UKFibromyalgia.com or myself on   davidjenkin@hotmail.com and we can assist you in purchasing your copy. Maybe somebody could order you a copy for Christmas! To contact me directly, or enquire about 1:1 training prices please check out my website www.davidjenkinfitness.co.uk or email me directly on davidjenkin@hotmail.com.