Normal Blood Pressure Response to Exercise

Hypertension is an increasingly common condition that, if left unchecked, can lead to a variety of undesirable cardiac conditions such as heart attack and stroke. When it comes to normalizing blood pressure, regular exercise is one of the best tools at your disposal. Exercise exerts a number of powerful influences on blood pressure, increasing your health and decreasing your likelihood of succumbing to disease.

Blood Pressure

• Blood pressure is a measurement of the force that bloodflow is exerting against the walls of your arteries as it passes through your body. Blood pressure is noted as two separate numbers--the higher of these numbers represents the amount of pressure while your heart is contracting, while the lower of these numbers representing the amount of pressure while your heart is relaxing between beats.

Blood Pressure and Cardio Activities

• The American Heart Organization teaches that the normal response of blood pressure to engagement in cardiovascular exercise activities is to increase slightly. This increase occurs because while exercising, your body's tissues are consuming oxygen at a greater-than-normal rate. Therefore, the heart must pump additional blood to meet the body's needs. The additional volume of blood being forced through arteries of fixed proportion results in a higher level of pressure on the system itself.

Benefits of Exercise on Blood Pressure

• According to the American Heart Organization, weightlifting, or resistance training, affects blood pressure somewhat differently than strict cardiovascular exercise does. In weightlifting, only certain muscle groups are being contracted at any given time. Thus, being efficient, the body diverts its resources into increasing bloodflow to just those parts of the body that are being exercised. This also results in an increase in blood pressure, but unlike that experienced by individuals engaging in cardiovascular training, the increase in blood pressure during weightlifting is localized to the working muscles.

Benefits

• The body is remarkably adaptable. Over months and months of regular exercise, the body will become increasingly efficient at increasing its bloodflow to support your athletic endeavors. This will result in a stronger, more disease-proof heart, in addition to helping your body rid itself of harmful cholesterol and unneeded weight.

Considerations

• The American Heart Association also notes that, to ensure that your blood pressure response to exercise is substantially "normal," you should always engage in both a warm-up and a cool-down period before and after training. Roughly 10 minutes of each is sufficient to prevent your body from spiking blood pressure upwards or downwards, resulting in a decreased probability of muscle cramping or injury. Additionally, remember to breathe naturally during training, as holding your breath can result in an unwanted increase in blood pressure, which may lead to cramping.