Only 5 minutes long exercise to lower blood pressure? Is this possible? Small changes in your daily routine, how often you sit, how active you walk, even how much you stand. All this affects your blood pressure. The real difference, says the new study, is to do something to really get your heart rate up.
“Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking,” lead study author Joanna Blodgett, PhD, of the Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Health at University College London, said.
“The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure,” Dr. Blodgett said. You don’t necessarily have to hit the gym, Blodgett added. You can improve your blood pressure with all types of moderate-to-vigorous exercise, like taking stairs or cycling when you run errands.
Exercise to lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure
Researchers looked into data from nearly 15,000 participants. These people had their blood pressure taken, they wore activity trackers for 24 hours to record all of their movements. This included sleep and sedentary time.
On average, a participant spent about 7.1 hours sleeping and 10.7 hours sitting or being sedentary. Also 3.2 hours standing, 2.7 hours walking. And just 16 minutes engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity like cycling, jogging, or climbing stairs.
The researchers found something very interesting. Replacing sedentary or low-intensity activities with moderate-to-vigorous exercise for five minutes had a measurable impact on blood pressure.
This small shift reduced systolic blood pressure by an average of 0.68 mmHg (millimeters of mercury). It lowered diastolic blood pressure by an average of 0.54 mmHg.
Small changes lead to big improvements
These numbers may seem quite small to you. But they when the change starts, at 5 minutes and more. The scientists found that it might not take more than an extra 10 or 20 minutes a day of exercise for people to see clinically meaningful improvements in blood pressure.
Replacing 20 to 27 minutes a day of sedentary or less active movements with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity could result in a clinically meaningful 2 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure, the study found.
Use Heartery blood pressure lowering Exercise plan generator
While the study above focused on any rigorous exercise, the Heartery app offers a dedicated blood pressure lowering exercise plans generator. Under its hood is the knowledge base developed together with Mette Røsenstrom, an experienced Danish physiotherapist who runs fitness courses for hypertensives. In essence, Heartery generates plans with only those exercises that lower blood pressure.
Onboarding is simple yet important. You choose what exercises you like and dislike, indicate if you have any injuries or comorbidities, tell how much time you will have for training, and what weekdays suit you best.
The generated plan takes into account you blood pressure and all other Apple Health data. Importantly, it includes your calories burn, walking and running distances.
These exercises concentrate blood pressure lowering physical remedies. They present a unique mix of high intensity exercises combined with the unique face scan to measure your heart health metrics right after the training session is over.
