Sports Help You Control Your Blood Pressure
Sports help you control your blood pressure for many reasons. It is beneficial in that it makes the heartbeat less, prevents overweight and obesity, and also improves mood. Find out more in this article!
Regular exercise is one of the best ways to maintain health. This is especially important for people with hypertension because research has proven that exercise helps control your blood pressure.
Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Arterial Hypertension Society agree that physical exercise can have positive results in reducing the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. Hypertension is among the risk factors for both diseases.
What is hypertension?
The WHO defines hypertension as a condition in which the blood vessels suffer from persistent high blood pressure. This, of course, can harm them.
Blood pressure is the force exerted by the blood that the heart pumps against the walls of the blood vessels. If this resistance is higher than normal, the heart must work harder to pump blood. And this happens every time the heartbeats.
Hypertension is dangerous because it puts the heart and organs such as the kidney and brain at risk. It is the cause of the vast majority of heart attacks in the world. That’s why it’s important to avoid this. Sport helps control your blood pressure, and this is something the WHO added to its recommendations as early as 1989.
How does sports help you control your blood pressure?
Sports help you control your blood pressure. First of all, they contribute to the maintenance of proper weight and prevent obesity. The relationship between excess adipose tissue, overweight, obesity and high blood pressure is risky.
Sport improves the functioning of the heart, as it reduces the number of beats per minute and prevents excessive exertion of this organ. Athletes usually have lower blood pressure levels because their bodies work better than those who don’t exercise.
Adding to these benefits is the fact that exercising regularly helps control levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. This also makes you feel healthier and fitter, which contributes to a positive emotional state. Good feelings are essential to prevent high blood pressure problems.
By playing a sport, cholesterol and blood sugar levels are also better controlled. Both are directly related to high or high blood pressure and are often the trigger for myocardial infarction or stroke.
A physical activity plan is best
Sports help you control your blood pressure if you practice it regularly. Doing sports sporadically is not the solution for high blood pressure. What you need to do is to have a regular physical activity plan.
It is important to get a doctor’s approval before following an exercise routine or playing a sport. A doctor should evaluate each person’s health status, as well as factors such as age and weight.
Ideally, you should exercise for half an hour three times a week. The first ten minutes of these thirty minutes should be a warm-up; then the application itself is carried out, and finally stretching and relaxation.
It is recommended to leave a day between workouts so that you can flush out the lactic acid that causes muscle pain from the muscles.
The best sports to help lower your blood pressure
Although sports generally help you control your blood pressure, some sports are better suited for this purpose. Specifically, resistance exercises involving aerobic metabolism and moderate competitive effort are the best choice.
The most recommended sports are flat biking, cross-country skiing, swimming, flat walking, golf, moderate trekking, running, skating, canoeing and athletic shooting.
It is also important to maintain an appropriate weight, reduce salt intake, reduce stress levels, avoid alcohol consumption, not smoke, and maintain a healthy diet rich in potassium and fiber. It is best to avoid sports that involve heavy weights, as they raise blood pressure.
