MarkReganFitness.co.uk - Helping you to unlock your potential
MarkReganFitness.co.uk - Helping you to unlock your potential
More and more people are suffering from high blood pressure and this can lead to heart problems and ultimately death. Good news is that blood pressure can be lowered with the right training program.
Hypertension is the clinical term for high blood pressure (BP). It affects around 1 billion people and is believe to be the cause of 7.1 million deaths; 13% of total deaths (WHO, 2002).
Hypertension has no symptoms and is therfore regarded as the silent killer.
Normal blood pressure is 120mmHg/80mmHg. High blood pressure is anything over 140mmHg/90mmHg.
Lifestyle factors such as obesity, high alcohol intake, high salt intake and stress all contribute to narrowing the ateries (atherosclerosis) and reduce their ability to dilate (widen). This will increase the peripheral resistance causing the heart to work harder (therefore cardiac output increases too). Increased peripheral resistance and/or cardiac output both increase blood pressure.
It is also worth noting that some people are genetically predisposed to high blood pressure. If you have past family history of high blood pressure and/or heart problems then you may be at risk of high blood pressure.
There are different levels of hypertension and therefore depending on which stage you are in will determine which training program will be suited to you.
Hypertensive individuals need to focus on reducing their blood pressure and aerobic activity at the correct intensity (intensity is determined by the degree of high blood pressure) is the most beneficial way to do this.
If you have high blood pressure, it is important that you learn which exercises to avoid. Some exercises and training programmes have been proven to raise blood pressure even more and this is extremely dangerous for anyone with high blood pressure.
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