High blood pressure is a serious problem and causes major damage to the body if not in check. It doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you have or how brilliant you are, if you have this problem you need to pay attention. There is a strong relationship between blood pressure and exercise. And that’s fortunate because it’s much better for your body to have a combination of exercise for high blood pressure, rather than take dangerous drugs.
High blood pressure, as well as obesity, can be helped by fitness.
Different doctors have different beliefs but in general our blood pressure should not be higher than 140/90. In general, the lower your blood pressure the greater your life expectancy, assuming you don’t have some serious disease or are not in shock.
A doctor figures blood pressure with a stethoscope and his trusty "blood pressure cuff". Generally a normal reading is 130/80. Doctors claim "the pressure in the blood vessels is 130 mm. of mercury during the squeezing forward action of blood along the arteries when the heart contracts. When the heart relaxes and while it is being filled before the next contraction or heartbeat, diastole is said to occur. This relaxed state, or diastole, is 80 mm. of mercury in this case." Quite honestly, I understand a word of that sentence – but fortunately I don’t have to.
Getting accurate readings on blood pressure isn’t easy because we can have different readings during the day. One thing is for sure: your blood pressure will be ‘better’ after exercise.
Those of us who aren’t in top condition will notice that our blood pressure goes up during, and right after, exercise. This isn’t alarming and is in fact expected. It’s caused by greater load flow through the muscles simply because the muscles need increased nutrients or more blood.
An athlete is more efficient. Her heart and arteries are accustomed to relaxation during exercise and this has a beneficial effect on the blood pressure. In addition her blood vessels are more flexible and the body does not have to go into any crisis to handle the increased blood pressure.
Our blood pressure tends to increase as we age. babies have blood pressure readings of approximately 75/40 and don’t reach the "normal" readings until we are in their 20s. If we don’t exercise, as we age our arteries will lose their flexibility and elasticity and therefore pumping blood through them will be harder. This inevitably will cause a rise in blood pressure.
It’s crystal clear that there is a strong relationship between blood pressure and exercise.
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