Any activity or physical movement that is designed to enhance or maintain physical fitness and overall health and wellness can be referred to as exercise. Improving personal health through constant simple exercise is entirely easier than one might think.
In fact; evidence shows that greater health benefits are achieved from light to moderate exercise simply because people are more likely to stick with it. Hence you don’t have to jog for an hour a day. On the other hand, a sedentary lifestyle, which involves a lot of sitting while at work and during leisure activities has little or no physical activity, doubles the risk of dying from heart disease.
Combining endurance exercise like walking and cycling, plus dynamic resistance training e.g. weight balancing is extremely effective in reducing blood pressure. Thus in-activeness is linked to high blood pressure; therefore increasing your activity levels will reduce your blood pressure.
If a person is diagnosed with high blood pressure, the doctor or nurse may recommend that such person indulge in more active schedule to lower the pressure.
Nevertheless, a person might get disturbed because it is presumed that habitual exercise increases blood pressure to dangerously high levels. It is considered correct when it is stated that physical activity (exercise) will cause your blood pressure to rise for a short amount of time.
Nonetheless, if this exercised activities are stopped, the blood pressure of such individual usually soon return to normal rate. The more rapidly this happens the fitter that person is expected to be.
The pressure exerted by the blood against the walls of the blood vessels or arteries as the heart pumps it around the body is termed blood pressure. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood around the body, the pumping of the blood creates pressure hence blood pressure depends on the strength of the heartbeat, the thickness and the volume of the blood, the elasticity of the artery walls and finally, general health of an individual.
Blood pressure is very crucial to life because it is responsible for forcing blood around the body, delivering the entire nutrient it requires to function properly. Blood pressure may go higher or lower than the optimum which is less than 120/80 mmHg. The 120 being the systolic while the 80 is labelled the diastolic. Systolic blood pressure measures the force of blood against the artery walls while your ventricles at the lower two chambers of your heart squeezes, pushing blood out to the rest of your body.
On the other hand, diastolic blood pressure measures the force of blood against your artery walls as your heart relaxes allowing your ventricles to refill with blood, thus periodically timing when your heart relaxes between beats. If a person has blood pressure is greater or equal to 140/90 mmHg for a sustained period of time, such a person is said to have a high blood pressure otherwise known as hypertension which implies that the walls of the arteries are receiving too much pressure on a constant basis.
Even though high blood pressure rarely has noticeable symptoms, it increases your risk of lethal problems such as strokes and heart attack if not treated. In the same premise, anyone whose blood pressure is less than 90/60mmHg is said to have a low blood pressure which is also called hypotension. Low blood pressure results to fainting or dizziness because the heart (and consequently, the entire body) doesn’t receive adequate blood.
The causes of high blood pressure can be categorised into two, namely; essential high blood pressure and secondary high blood pressure which in turn can cause devastating effect on a individual’s health performance.
Both causes share similar risk factors which can be referred to anything that boosts your chances of getting a disease. For instance, alcohol consumption is a risk factor for liver problem, and high sugar intake is a risk factor for diabetes mellitus.
According to the American Heart Association, men are at a higher risk of high blood pressure than women are until age 64. Women are seen to be at a higher risk than men from the age of 65 years and above. The following heightens your risk:
Age – HBP increases with age
Family history- infected close relative
Ethnic background – African or South-Asian ancestry
Obesity and overweight
Diabetes
Mental stress
Much alcohol or smoking
Pregnancy
Diet with high sugar, salt and fat
Physical inactivity
Also, low blood pressure causes aren’t always clear, you may be at risk if you:
Become dehydrated or take certain prescription drugs such as high blood pressure medications, diuretics, anxiety or depression medications, erectile dysfunction medications, e.t.c.
Have a variety of heart, hormonal, or nervous system problems. These include thyroid problems and pregnancy.
Below are five reasons why exercise is good for blood pressure:
1. Improves cardiovascular health
2. Exercise could be just as effective in lowering high blood pressure as prescribed medication
3. Exercise (and healthy diet) is the master key to weight control.
4. Affordable and accessible
5. Exercise helps strengthen muscles.
Improves Cardiovascular Health
The American Heart Association and almost every doctor recommend more aerobic exercise to people with, or at risk for, heart disease. This is due to the fact that the heart becomes more strengthened when aerobic exercise is applied, not to forget that this activity also efficiently pumps blood round the whole body.
It is advisable to aim to get around 30 minutes of moderate cardiovascular activities at least five days each week. This exercise can be done for about 130 minutes or 2 hours per week. There are other activities and mix up intensities such as using weights, resistance bands, yoga and stretching exercises that can be incorporated into daily routines to keep it interesting.
Effective in Lowering High Blood Pressure
Evidence has shown that exercise could be just as effective in lowering high blood pressure as most prescribed medication. Researchers collected data from nearly 400 trials and came to the realisation that for people with high blood pressure, activity such as walking, swimming and simple weight training seemed to be just as good as most drugs used for treating it. However, people are warned not stop taking their medication until further studies are carried out.
Exercise is Key to Weight Control
This is more effective when combined with a healthy dieting lifestyle, being physically active is an essential component for losing weight and even more important for remaining fit, which in turn helps optimise blood pressure. When one overweight it puts much strain on the heart and this becomes a risk factor for heart disease and possibly stroke.
Affordable and Accessible
Fancy equipment or a gym membership is not a pre-requisite to making your exercise work out. Daily exercise can be achieved as easy as taking a walk around your neighbourhood or going for a jog with a friend on a local trail taking your athletic tape along to reduce chances of injuries.
You can also check local schools or community centres for pool hours. Many offer free admission to residents. Free in-expensive fitness programs are being offer by some governmental and private centres to the general public to enhance the benefits of exercise. Online sources can be equally helpful to find free workouts on sites like YouTube. Yoga with Adriene, Fitness Blender, Blogilates are popular channels.
It is necessary to check if an employer provides possible discounts or free memberships at such centres and gyms. If not, there might be available incentives that employees are eligible to at their workplace through the federal health insurance provider like NHIS.
Exercise Helps Strengthen Muscles
Exercise assists your heart muscle become more efficient and better able to pump blood throughout your body, just as exercise strengthens other muscles in your body. This implies that the heart pushes out more blood with each beat, allowing it to beat slower and keep your blood pressure under control.
A combination of aerobic workouts which include walking, running, swimming, and other vigorous heart such as pumping exercise and strength training such as weight lifting, and resistance training is considered best for keeping the health healthy.
It is however imperative to note that when you’re constantly active, injuries and muscle strains are highly susceptible. From sprained fingers, to rolled ankles, to an over-worked back, give your body the necessary care it requires by using athletic tapes; Athletic taping is the process of directly applying tape to the region of the skin to stabilise the position of bones and muscles in the period of athletic activity. This procedure uses the athletic tape that is attached to the skin surface, to physically maintain the muscles or bones at a precise position. Some of them help to lessen pain, while others add some much-needed support. Basically, the goals of athletic taping are to restrict the motion of an injured joint, compress soft tissues to reduce swelling, support anatomical structures involved in the injury, serve as a splint or secure dressing or bandages to actively protect the wounded joint from re-injury, and protect the injured part while the injured part is in the healing process.