Reverse High Blood Pressure? Yes please!
Did you know that heart disease is the #1 cause of death for women? 😱
For us women, it’s more deadly than cancer, diabetes, and dementia COMBINED.
And your risk of developing heart disease increases dramatically in midlife (thanks a lot, dwindling estrogen!)
Statistically speaking, about half of you reading this email already have hypertension or high blood pressure.
This puts you at a much higher risk for stroke, heart attacks and heart failure.
But, there is good news…
YOU have the power to lower your blood pressure and prevent the majority (approximately 80%!) of heart disease.
Apart from the obvious lifestyle modifications (more on that in the “Did You Know?” section below), are there any specific exercise strategies to actively lower blood pressure?
Surprisingly, the answer is yes!
Read on for simple and doable strategies to bring down the pressure.
JUST ONE THING
My friend, we don’t need to make this complicated!You have enough spinning plates to balance as it is.
The best strategies to support healthy blood pressure are:
1. Patterned or box breathing
2. Doing 10-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day, and
3. Isometric exercisesLet’s focus on that last one…
Your JUST ONE THING to Lower Blood Pressure
Perform Isometric Exercises
Studies have shown that isometric exercises (i.e. exercises where you just hold still) are the most effective at bringing down blood pressure.
These types of holds are an awesome tool in your toolbox because they:
• Train blood vessels to relax
• Calm your nervous system
• Improve your body’s control of blood pressureHere’s one isometric exercise that you can easily start incorporating into your workouts.
Wall Sits
- Stand with your bum touching the wall, leaning forward slightly
- Walk your feet away from the wall with feet parallel
- Slide your bum down to a sitting position and hold
Extra Tip: Hold for 20-60 seconds. Continue to challenge yourself as these wall sits become easier. Make it harder by holding a deeper squat, setting some weights on your thighs, or doing a one-legged wall sit.
Did You Know...
- Regular full body movement—a balance of light, moderate and high intensity activity— improves the health and elasticity of your blood vessels as well as the strength and stamina of your heart muscle.
- Something as simple as doing 2-3 x ten-minute bouts of movement throughout the day appears to have a bigger impact on heart-friendly pressure control than one longer stretch of physical activity. This could be as simple as a short walk after each meal!
- The bottom line for keeping your heart healthy: keep stress in check, eat your PROs, get good sleep and maintain a regular rhythm of exercise.
Until next week... Be strong💪
