• Regular exercise lowers both your systolic (the top number) and your diastolic (the bottom number) blood pressure. Your systolic blood pressure can come down by 10 mmHg and your diastolic by 8 mmHg. For example your blood pressure could be lowered from 150/90 mmHg to 140/82 mmHg by exercising regularly. The exercise that you do to achieve this kind of reduction should be moderate.
  
• Once you start exercising you will see the most significant effects on your blood pressure levels within about 10 weeks but, in order to keep your blood pressure down, you need to keep exercising.
  
• Exercise not only lowers your blood pressure, it can also help you to lose weight, lower your cholesterol levels, improve your general well being and quality of life and help you to sleep, to name but a few. If you are overweight and can lose weight this too will help to lower your b/p, and if you have raised cholesterol and can lower it through exercise this will reduce your overall risk of a heart attack or stroke.
  
• You need to aim towards doing 30 minutes of moderate activity five times a week – moderate exercise means doing something that makes you slightly out of breath (you should still be able to talk), warm and a little sweaty. If you have not exercised for a while build up to this gradually. It is a good idea to do a variety of exercises to build up stamina, strength and flexibility. For example, walk to build up stamina, garden to build up strength and go dancing to improve your flexibility.
  
• Exercising is safe if you have high blood pressure and it is well controlled. If you have a very high blood pressure (ie, a systolic reading over 200 mmHg and/or a diastolic reading over 110 mmHg), or your blood pressure is not well controlled, talk to your doctor before starting an exercise programme. If you haven’t had any regular exercise for some time, it may be a good idea to discuss your plans with your doctor before you start.
  
• If you are taking beta blockers, your heart rate may not respond normally to exercise so you can’t use your heart rate as a guideline to find our how hard you are exercising, or to tell you when to slow down. So beware!
  
• Useful Links | What is high blood pressure? | Home Blood Pressure Monitoring
  

About This Page