How to Exercise With High Blood Pressure

Combining exercise with a preexisting condition is always a tricky affair. While regular exercise can certainly lower your overall blood pressure, exercise has the effect of temporarily raising blood pressure during training, which can be problematic if you are already afflicted with the condition. However, with diligence and attention to detail you can slowly work your way around the problem of hypertension, exercising your way to better health.

Things You'll Need

• Gym Membership or At-Home Equipment
• Comfortable Shoes
• Workout Clothing
• Heart Rate Monitor

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Instructions

Exercising Around Hypertension

• 1

  Start slowly. If you are currently unaccustomed to training, you should not expect to train with any reasonable level of intensity for several months. Your first few weeks of exercise should consist of nothing more than "feeler" workouts, which are light and simple training sessions designed to reintroduce your body to the demands of exercise. Good examples of these types of sessions would involve 30 minutes of brisk walking outdoors or very light weight lifting performed to nowhere near muscular failure. Ideally, you should finish one of these "ultra-light" training sessions feeling as though you could easily complete the entire workout again at that moment. If you feel as though you would be unable to repeat a hypothetical double-workout, you should reduce intensity during your next training session.

• 2

  Improve both the duration and the intensity of your training sessions over the coming weeks and months, but keep this in mind: As you are already afflicted with hypertension, you should perpetually abstain from performing any high-intensity workouts such as heavy weight lifting, sprinting, fast jogging and the like. According to the American Council on Exercise, you should aim to keep your heart rate while training between 40 and 75 percent of your maximum. If you notice your heart rate edging above this level, reduce intensity until it falls back into range. Work your way up to performing at least 30 minutes of training five days a week, keeping this in mind.

• 3

  If you are performing weight lifting, you should also aim to perfect your breathing technique to avoid inadvertently spiking your heart rate by holding your breath. The experts at the Mayo Clinic state that weight lifting can be beneficial to treat hypertension, but only if you keep breathing at the front of your mind. Proper breathing technique involves breathing in during the eccentric (lowering) portion of the lift and breathing out during the concentric (lifting) portion of the activity.