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

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

#161

Post by acchow » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

warner25 wrote: post #10

Tabata et al.[1] found in the mid-1990s that just 2-4 minutes of "high-intensity intermittent training may improve both anaerobic and aerobic energy supplying systems significantly." This was popularized as "Tabata training" 20+ years ago. I generally believe that brief bouts of exercise can be very beneficial, especially because they're easier to do consistently over the long-term vs. more time-consuming routines. F…

60-90 minutes is far too long at the gym. If you space your sets correctly, you can have a very effective workout in 25 minutes. Change your muscle groups every day.

Do people want to spend 60 minutes as some kind of gym time standard? Where does this number come from?

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

#162

Post by subsaharancoder » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 5:12 PM UTC

ijidak wrote: post #90

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…

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.

He is also 56 years old and has the muscle definition of a man in his 20s, when biology shows building and retaining that kind of quality muscle at that age is very difficult even with a history of physical fitness. I'll just say it, he's probably on TRT or some other gear..

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

#163

Post by vladgur » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

warner25 wrote: post #10

Tabata et al.[1] found in the mid-1990s that just 2-4 minutes of "high-intensity intermittent training may improve both anaerobic and aerobic energy supplying systems significantly." This was popularized as "Tabata training" 20+ years ago. I generally believe that brief bouts of exercise can be very beneficial, especially because they're easier to do consistently over the long-term vs. more time-consuming routines. F…

wow, never knew what Tabata meant back in my crossfit days :)

Now i do -- its a persons name

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

#164

Post by zer8k » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:52 PM UTC

taeric wrote: post #22

This could get far more mileage with people by saying "activity" instead of "exercise." It is amazing how much people can get out of a simple walk around the house. Make it out and around the neighborhood, and you start getting absurdly good results.

While I see your point (0 > 1, by definition) I think this sends the wrong message.

You need several hours of relatively strenuous exercise per week. Walking around the neighborhood, or your house, or whatever has diminishing returns. You need to steadily increase load to continue to see results. The body is incredibly good at adapting. People will read your statement and walk around their house twice, sit down, and not move for the rest of the night.

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

#165

Post by sfn42 » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:54 PM 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…

Most people don't know what depression is. I'd say I've been depressed most of my life but the best periods have been the ones where I was physically active.

Now, there's a bit of a chicken and egg problem here -am I sedentary because I'm depressed or am I depressed because I'm sedentary?

I would agree with the previous poster that exercise brings me out of depression, but I spend most of my depressive periods thinking I should be more active, right now I'm in one and I keep trying to get into some healthy habits but I keep giving up because I just don't have whatever it is that I need to keep it going. I even get nearly immediate results, just a few weeks of activity has me feeling better already. But then I find some reason to take a break and then the break drags on and I'm back to where I started.

So maybe it's the depression keeping me down or maybe it's my lack of discipline causing depression but either way I'd say physical activity is important for how you feel on a daily basis and I genuinely think just getting into a regular rhythm of exercise even just one day a week can have huge impacts on your life.

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

#166

Post by lofaszvanitt » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:56 PM UTC

andreareina wrote: post #73

lofaszvanitt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it could skyrocket for example if you get into a stressful situation. And you wouldn't notice that you are over 180+. And one day you get a stroke and become paralyzed. Sure, do not take the medication. These exists since the 40s, there is nothing wrong with them.

Do you have a well-regarded source that recommends taking medication for blood pressure that is well-managed by exercise and diet?

Do you have experience living with high blood pressure for 20+ years? Have you ever experienced blood pressure spikes and the after effects in stressful situations?

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

#167

Post by lofaszvanitt » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:57 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #89

lofaszvanitt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it could skyrocket for example if you get into a stressful situation. And you wouldn't notice that you are over 180+. And one day you get a stroke and become paralyzed. Sure, do not take the medication. These exists since the 40s, there is nothing wrong with them.

The doctors will remove medication when the blood pressure goes down. You are literally supposed to take them only when the pressure is actually high.

Don't they remove it/lower the dosage when your BP is below 120/80?

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

#168

Post by bobthepanda » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 7:13 PM UTC

dspillett wrote: post #120

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…

> 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 doctor…

even in the US a lot of doctors say this because it is usually less of a pain in the ass than filling out referral paperwork to specialists that cost more for the patient anyways.

part of the problem in the US is that at least some medical practices/hospitals measure patient satisfaction as a metric to evaluate performance, but what is good for the patient and what makes them happy is not necessarily correlated. it's a factor into how the opioid epidemic got as bad as it did in the US. and also i'd imagine if you kept telling people this for decades and they didn't listen people might just not bother.

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

#169

Post by wbl » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 7:29 PM UTC

hunter-gatherer wrote: post #136

petercooper wrote: post #133

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. Bear in mind that for many people therapies like SSRIs and weight loss medications (or even counselling/therapy) can get them into the right mental and physical place to start doing more exercise and eat better. It's easy to advise people to eat well and exercise, but it can be a bit like telling a miserable pe…

I've never suffered from a mental illness, so I'm genuinely curious; is exercise not ever used as a prescription for depression? Physical therapy is a thing, so it can be a prescription in some cases, no?

Compliance matters. Once a day pill is much easier to do than rework routine especially when patient has the "can't anymore" disease. Read Darkness Visible if you want to hear all about what that looks like.

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

#170

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 7:35 PM UTC

drowsspa wrote: post #100

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? HIIT is based on that person's body. They will hit their bpm much faster than a trained person. I started with HIIT last year in august (2023),reaching 181 bpm max and averaging 176 (I'm 35). Now, 1.5 years later, I do the same exercise (with a lot more strength) and hit 156 bpm average, 176 max. If I halt for 10 seconds (phone ringing), my bpm plummets (150 or even 148) and it's hard to bring back. On top o…

Were you completely sedentary before starting? And I mean, psychologically, the feeling of nearly dying would have been enough to scare me off any exercising had I started with that. Being able to push yourself physically, and enjoying it, is a skill that needs to be learned gradually for most people.

I was completely sedentary for 2-3 years. I did practice intense sports over the year and I already had experience with sedentary/active lifestyle changes, so I'm familiar with the "throw up" feeling. That goes away in a couple of weeks.

My mother did always describe to me the feeling of being exhausted after sport as a pleasant one, so I do perceive it as pleasant.

The reason why I hate it is because I could be doing something enjoyable. I tried looking for sports that I actually enjoy but I found only windsurf, which is highly impractical, expensive and very time consuming. I'd rather spend that time with my kids, my wife, playing board games and playing videogames.