Blood Pressure and Exercise

Here is a summary of the topic discussed during my 07/13/2012 guest appearance on the Dave Elswick radio show.  You can tune in almost every Friday afternoon starting at 4pm CST in Central Arkansas or online at www.karnnewsradio.com.  Remember to always consult your doctor before beginning any kind of exercise program.  Follow all guidelines that the doctor gives you!

The topic from this show is Blood Pressure Response to resistance exercise.  The information presented here is a combination of my own knowledge as well as some specific research findings from an article by Wayne L Westcott, Ph.D that appeared in the April-June 2012 ACSM's Certified News, a publication for fitness and health professionals.

This is important information to understand, because, as Dr. Westcott states over one-third of Americans are hypertensive, aka, High blood pressure.  Every time the human heart beats it pushes blood through the arteries and delivers it to wherever in the body it is needed.  The veins return blood to the heart.  Think of it like your commute, the arteries take you to work, the veins bring you home.  The blood pressure is the measurement of the force that is exerted upon the walls of the arteries by the blood as it moves through the body.  Systolic Blood Pressure (the first number) is the measurement of force when the heart beats.  Diastolic blood pressure is the measurement when the heart relaxes in between beats (the second number) For people that are hypertensive there are two main concerns regarding blood pressure and resistance training: 1) it may lead to a quick and unsafe rise in blood pressure levels during exercise and 2) this could result in a permanent rise in resting blood pressure levels.

However, research has shown that proper weight training with hypertensive people, can lower blood pressure after a minimum training period of two months.  Blood pressure responds to exercise in two ways, acutely, during an exercise session, and chronically, over a period of time.  Acute responses in various studies have shown that hypertensive people can lift weights using at 75% of a 10 repetition maximum without seeing an unsafe rise in blood pressure.  A 10 rep max is the heaviest amount of weight that can be lifted with perfect form, no more than 10 times.  Use 75% of that weight to stay within the safe ranges.  It has also been shown that hypertensive people who lift extremely heavy weights at or around 95% of a 1 rep max  can spike blood pressure as high as 320mmHg during the leg press exercise.  The recommended safe max for blood pressure during exercise is 250mmHg and should not be approached by anyone who is hypertensive.  Staying below this, resistance training is usually safe for hypertensive people.

Chronically, resistance training helps to lower blood pressure, again research seems to indicate a minimum of two months of training before any significant change has taken place.  Regardless of age, everyone who resistance trains will see a reduction in blood pressure over time.  This is good, the lower your blood pressure is the less difficulty and effort your heart has to put out to keep you alive.  It appears that resistance training at least twice a week will bring about improvements in blood pressure levels.  Better results occur when training three times a week.  Between two different studies, young and middle-aged adults averaged a drop of about 7mmHg in resting blood pressure levels with some middle-aged people dropping by as much as 13mmHg.  Older adults averaged between 3-5mmHg drops in resting blood pressure.  Overall, it seems that the average person's blood pressure can be expected to drop about 6mmHg at systolic measurements and 4.7mmHg at diastolic measurements.  Reducing blood pressure is entirely possible with resistance exercise.

Now three exercise tips for hypertensive people:
1) Never perform a maximal lift as long as you continue to be considered hypertensive, that is never try to lift as much weight as you possibly can for 1 repetition.  This will cause a drastically unsafe rise in blood pressure.
2) Never perform the valsalva manuever, which is most commonly associated with maximal lifts.  The valsalva manuever is performed by holding one's breath and contracting the abdominal muscles to force a maximal lift or extra repetitions once fatigue sets in.  Holding your breath combined with this extra effort will cause dangerous rises in blood pressure the symptoms are often experiences as lightheadedness, dizziness, seeing spots, and extreme cases, passing out. DO NOT DO THIS!
3) Control your breathing.  Proper breathing techniques will go along way towards controlling blood pressure while resistance training.  On every repetition of every exercise exhale while performing the part of the motion that requires exertion and effort.  Inhale when reversing this motion to return the weight or machine to the starting position.  Exhale the effort Inhale the ease

Remember to always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.  Stay safe and live the healthy.