Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure • Hacker News Board

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#111

Post by mr_mitm » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:00 AM UTC

renegade-otter wrote: post #98

mcdeltat wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's true that doing any amount more exercise is beneficial to the average person, they may not necessarily know/feel it. As we so often see super fit people in the media, it's easy to think we need to do hours of exercise daily for any benefit. Easy to then think "what's the point? I'll never be super fit" and do nothing. Recinforcing the narrative (including publication of studies) that no, even a small amoun…

I do wonder how many people do not take care of the basics and instead go for anti-depressants and Ozempic. I get it if you tried everything, but how many do? When I stop compulsively eating and drinking, when I look for every opportunity to do something as an exercise, I snap out of my [self-diagnosed] depression and malaise in a few days, and feel great. The doctors rarely tell you to eat your salads. "Here is a pi…

This really downplays the impact of clinical depression. It's often not solved by exercising alone, and if you talk to a psychologist about this, the first thing they do is recommend exercising or at least goeing for walks as an immediate measure before potentially therapy or medication starts.

When I went to a doctor complaining about low energy, literally the first question was about weight gain and exercising, so I'm not sure where your comment about the pills comes from.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#112

Post by randunel » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:03 AM UTC

antics9 wrote: post #99

I have a neighbour who's in his 60s. Blood pressure was of the charts while in his 40s. The guy was cycling to work everyday (and thought that was enough exercise) and was living a stressful family and work life. Doctor never prescribed any drugs but told him that he had to start exercising. Signed up for judo class. He couldn't believe the amount of exercise he got from the warm up alone. Been doing judo 3 days a we…

And here I was, thinking my daily cycling would be enough. It's not. I've been cycling all of my life, cycling daily and I'm still categorised as obese according to all weight to height ratios.

My long term avg blood pressure varies with weight. It's lower when I lose weight, higher when I gain weight.

I guess generalising health advice isn't necessarily useful. Health advice should be tailored to individuals, instead.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#113

Post by renegade-otter » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:05 AM UTC

mr_mitm wrote: post #111

renegade-otter wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder how many people do not take care of the basics and instead go for anti-depressants and Ozempic. I get it if you tried everything, but how many do? When I stop compulsively eating and drinking, when I look for every opportunity to do something as an exercise, I snap out of my [self-diagnosed] depression and malaise in a few days, and feel great. The doctors rarely tell you to eat your salads. "Here is a pi…

This really downplays the impact of clinical depression. It's often not solved by exercising alone, and if you talk to a psychologist about this, the first thing they do is recommend exercising or at least goeing for walks as an immediate measure before potentially therapy or medication starts. When I went to a doctor complaining about low energy, literally the first question was about weight gain and exercising, so…

My comment comes from the seeming ease of procuring these drugs - with people going on Ozempic out of pure vanity.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#114

Post by Ma8ee » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:06 AM UTC

looofooo0 wrote: post #93

outworlder wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I personally do not. I was about to be put in blood pressure medication. Then I started a gym, with a trainer. I noticed that, after the exercise, blood pressure would immediately drop and stay low for a few hours. Over time, the amount of time it spent lower than average increased, and it got lower and lower. It crossed 24h. Now? I can go to the gym Mon/Wed/Fri and it will remain low at all times. I did stop f…

Great that you have the time to do it. I just cycle the children to kindergarden and then to work everyday. I am lucky to fit in one evening of sports every week. Plus owning no car saves lot of money. I guess I am quite lucky.

That is how I do it too. I don’t have time for much dedicated exercise with a full time job and two small kids, but cycling allows me to get a decent amount of exercise every day while saving both time and money. (And about time, if you work in a city and have less than a 10 km commute, cycling is almost always faster during rush hour. )

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#115

Post by BoringTimesGang » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:14 AM UTC

fsckboy wrote: post #74

comrh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to consider quality of life too. Maybe you only gain one minute, but you'll age much better with a habit of exercise and stretching.

your point gets made over and over and over, I get it, health nuts have a list of things that they think are healthy. My point, that there's a cost to all this that might not get repaid, is a fresh take that you never see unless you've read one of my other comments making the point.

If you are waiting for studies that perfectly model every variable before you spend 5 minutes walking, you are unlikely to be satisfied within your rapidly decreasing lifespan.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#116

Post by havblue » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:18 AM UTC

antics9 wrote: post #99

I have a neighbour who's in his 60s. Blood pressure was of the charts while in his 40s. The guy was cycling to work everyday (and thought that was enough exercise) and was living a stressful family and work life. Doctor never prescribed any drugs but told him that he had to start exercising. Signed up for judo class. He couldn't believe the amount of exercise he got from the warm up alone. Been doing judo 3 days a we…

It sounds like diet might have worked in this case.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#117

Post by _glass » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:32 AM UTC

4gotunameagain wrote: post #104

cenamus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking up a flight of stairs briskly is way above VO2 max for the vast majority of people, yet doesn't feel "extreme"

> for the vast majority of people ..In the states. Ask people from Amsterdam or Berlin about running out of breath from stairs. I even remember seeing a study that claimed that people who lived in higher floors with no elevator had in average better cardiovascular health, an easy peasy way to nudge people into the right direction.

I am going to work by bike, and in the beginning, I could still get to zone 2. Now this is really hard to achieve. It becomes really hard to push yourself enough.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#118

Post by dspillett » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:39 AM UTC

seadan83 wrote: post #58

warner25 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I once experimented with organizing my running workouts according to the original Tabata protocol, as closely as possible, for about six weeks[1]. I wasn't an elite athlete by any means, but I was a 21 year-old Army cadet in the top quartile of cadets in terms of fitness. I found that it's indeed difficult to strike a legitimate 100% effort, even when it's only for 20 seconds and only 5-10 times. My point is n…

HIIT or Tabata must not be done day-to-day, everyday. With no recovery days, there will be no gains. A 21 year old is able to recover like crazy, a good 9 hours of sleep might be enough to mostly recover. For others it would not work well and would lead to over-training. In overtraining, the 100% efforts will be 90% efforts, impact the immune system, generally just not good all round. For disproportionate benefits, o…

> With no recovery days, there will be no gains.

That is true of any exercise regime with much intensity. For muscular activity: pushing towards anything like your limits technically causes lots of minor damage, which the body repairs back better. If you don't give yourself sufficient recovery time within your weekly routine you miss out on a lot of that benefit because the body's repair/improve systems don't have time to properly do their thing. This is one of the reasons¹ why overtraining injuries are a thing. In terms of cardio this still applies, the heart is a set of muscles. Mentally I think there is a similar effect, but pinning down a cause for this is much more hand-wavy and subjective compared to the far better understood² mechanisms of how the body repairs, regulates, and improves, physical structures.

Some people seem to manage with minimal recovery time, but they are either lucky³, kidding themselves, or storing up issues ready for a big nasty surprise later.

----

[1] Other similar reasons include damage & fatigue in parts of the body other than muscles, and sometimes just being tired to the point of getting form wrong and hurting yourself through that.

[2] though still not entirely understood

[3] I'm counting being young as being lucky here. I'm trying to get back into running and other regular exercise (after a period of illness, looking after family with medical issues, and general burn-out) and the biggest thing getting in the way of improving from here is that I'm now in my mid/late 40s rather than early 30s like last time I was at this level of conditioning!

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#119

Post by gloflo » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:41 AM UTC

yourusername wrote: post #107

ijidak wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shannon Sharpe works out at my gym. Huge guy. Former NFL tight-end. Still very fit. I notice he only does 1 hour at the gym and then he leaves. Granted, this is very low quality anecdata. But seeing how brief his workout is opened my eyes to the benefit of consistency over volume.

Dorian Yates (former mister Olympia) claimed he trained 4 times a week for 45 minutes while preparing for the contest. But very intense training.

He also sells training so there is reason to doubt anything he says about the topic.

Re: Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

#120

Post by dspillett » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 10:51 AM UTC

renegade-otter wrote: post #98

mcdeltat wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's true that doing any amount more exercise is beneficial to the average person, they may not necessarily know/feel it. As we so often see super fit people in the media, it's easy to think we need to do hours of exercise daily for any benefit. Easy to then think "what's the point? I'll never be super fit" and do nothing. Recinforcing the narrative (including publication of studies) that no, even a small amoun…

I do wonder how many people do not take care of the basics and instead go for anti-depressants and Ozempic. I get it if you tried everything, but how many do? When I stop compulsively eating and drinking, when I look for every opportunity to do something as an exercise, I snap out of my [self-diagnosed] depression and malaise in a few days, and feel great. The doctors rarely tell you to eat your salads. "Here is a pi…

> The doctors rarely tell you to eat your salads. "Here is a pill, thank you for your business".

I'm guessing you are in the US? There is a lot of medical advice here (UK, and Europe more widely) which is essentially “eat better and move around more”. A great many don't listen to that, but it is definitely said.

> When I stop compulsively eating and drinking [and do some] exercise

This is a key issue: not what doctors are prescribing but what people do to self-medicate. The harmful side of self-care when “a bit of what you like does you good” becomes overconsumption and underactivity. It can be even worse for those of us with significant mental issues over the norm (bit of a bipolar pillock myself, got a piece of paper saying so & everything, and like you describe with depression I find the right exercise, while not at all a panacea, helps regulate my mind quite a lot as well as stopping my body falling apart).