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

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

#181

Post by kelipso » Sat, Nov 09, 2024, 2:30 AM UTC

kd5bjo wrote: post #131

safety1st wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for the average person, looking too carefully at individual studies is failing to see the forest for the trees. Basically any time we do a study which asks "Is doing a bit more exercise better for you?" the answer is yes. Like doing a single walk around the block every week is better than doing none. Even five minutes of exercise is better than zero. But obviously these have much less positive impact than sev…

> There are diminishing returns but they don't really kick in until you're already pretty fit, they are only really a concern that athletes need to think about. Unfortunately, it's people at both ends of the fitness curve that have to be careful about increased exercise frequency/intensity. On the less-fit side, the primary concern is accumulating minor injuries that reduce capacity for exercise even further leading…

Too much exercise is a problem that can happen to literally anyone. Not just due to injuries. Fatigue management is one main component.

Saying that more exercise is always better is a completely false statement. Do not care if it sounds good or is meant to "help" people or whatever, it's completely false and can harm uninformed people.

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

#182

Post by throw282744 » Sat, Nov 09, 2024, 4:02 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.

When you're on steroids your body is basically a muscle making factory. You mainly need to consume enough protein and calories and your body will essentially do the work for you.

A person who takes steroids and doesn't work out will still gain more muscle than a non-steroid user working out for an hour every day.

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

#183

Post by acuozzo » Sat, Nov 09, 2024, 6:06 AM UTC

ninalanyon wrote: post #172

reportgunner wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "set" probably refers to 5 or more repetitions per set, so 3 sets are 3*5+ repetitions of squats. A "full" squat probably means to go so low that your butt goes below your knees.

How does 3 sets of 5 differ from 15?

Without taking a break, you can lift a heavier weight 5 times than you can 15 times.

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

#184

Post by cenamus » Sat, Nov 09, 2024, 7:35 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.

No, I mean in general. You wouldn't have the capacity to walk up 30 flights quickly, partly because you're way over VO2 max, partly because you're way into the anaerobic energy supply to make up for the deficit.

But I totally agree on the second point, starting in the the 4th floor was a bit hard in the beginning for me too

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

#185

Post by boomlinde » Sat, Nov 09, 2024, 9:42 AM UTC

safety1st wrote: post #72

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…

I think for the average person, looking too carefully at individual studies is failing to see the forest for the trees. Basically any time we do a study which asks "Is doing a bit more exercise better for you?" the answer is yes. Like doing a single walk around the block every week is better than doing none. Even five minutes of exercise is better than zero. But obviously these have much less positive impact than sev…

> There are diminishing returns but they don't really kick in until you're already pretty fit, they are only really a concern that athletes need to think about.

The paper suggest otherwise. Replacing ten minutes of your otherwise 11 hours of sedentary time with exercise will have less than twice the effect on blood pressure of replacing five minutes with exercise. That is diminishing returns.

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

#186

Post by cutler » Sat, Nov 09, 2024, 11:23 AM UTC

clort wrote: post #80

cutler wrote: post #43

For anyone over 60 I recommend 3 sets of full squats before bed for a good night's sleep and strength for hill walking and climbing stairs.

I'm not over 60, yet, and I feel there are likely many, myself included, who don't know what a "set of full squats" is, exactly.. when you recommend such things could you at least say what that is thanks?

Sorry. For me a set is just going to your limit. A full squat is where your butt touches your ankles but don't "bounce" - pause momentarily before you come back up.

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

#187

Post by browningstreet » Sun, Nov 10, 2024, 3:56 PM UTC

kelipso wrote: post #181

kd5bjo wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are diminishing returns but they don't really kick in until you're already pretty fit, they are only really a concern that athletes need to think about. Unfortunately, it's people at both ends of the fitness curve that have to be careful about increased exercise frequency/intensity. On the less-fit side, the primary concern is accumulating minor injuries that reduce capacity for exercise even further leading…

Too much exercise is a problem that can happen to literally anyone. Not just due to injuries. Fatigue management is one main component. Saying that more exercise is always better is a completely false statement. Do not care if it sounds good or is meant to "help" people or whatever, it's completely false and can harm uninformed people.

This guy looked at longevity stats for runners. He recommends running a little, not a lot.

2012 TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0

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

#188

Post by brailsafe » Mon, Nov 11, 2024, 1:13 AM UTC

taeric wrote: post #175

brailsafe wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You only need a 20ish pound set of weights to build muscle, oddly. Don't even have to spend a ton of time on it. Can do a basic set of curls/whatever while cooking breakfast. Eh, you can do almost anything with anything at a sufficient intensity frequently enough that you'll build muscle, and you definitely should, but I just feel like the more important thing is to find a good feedback cycle. Everyone is a little…

A good feedback cycle is good. Agreed on that. A shorter commitment cycle is also good. Gym memberships are particularly tough. You have to have the time for the exercise, no matter where you do it. You also have to have time for the commute to and from if it isn't at a place you were going to be anyway. Which is why I would suggest starting with just basic dumbbells at home. Every day. This isn't even unique to exer…

Agreed, which is why I can't picture myself living in a situation that has such friction if my money goes far enough to avoid it in the future. Fwiw, I'm also on the side of not getting a membership unless you're able to go enough times at the drop-in rate to justify saving money on it, or just stick with month to month. I didn't register for an ongoing membership at mine until the cost if drop-in passes surpassed the membership and it was painful and irrational enough to finally commit longer.

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

#189

Post by hombre_fatal » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:09 PM UTC

mise_en_place wrote: post #17

hombre_fatal wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5-10 points isn't marginal just because there is measurement variance to account for. And just because there's variance doesn't mean you can't fuzz out real numbers. It's like thinking you can stop a timing attack with sleep(random()). I'd be very skeptical of defending something like high blood pressure. People do the same with high cholesterol. It's a bunch of cope and wishful thinking that they're very different f…

Except those two don't really matter when predicting heart attack or stroke risk. HRV results, EKG results, labile hypertension; these are the indicators of whether or not you're at a risk for a heart attack or stroke. Getting a regular stress test is more important than blindly throwing anti-hypertensives at someone who may not need them in the first place. My smart ring detects if there are potential arrhythmia, sa…

High blood pressure is independently predictive of heart disease and stroke. We see this over and over again in prospective cohort and RCT data the same way we know that your favorite metrics also predict heart disease.

The problem with your wearables example is the same problem you have with angiograms and CAC scans: by the time you're seeing results, it's probably too late.

Even if the Apple Watch could tell you 7 days before you're going to have a heart attack, it's the result of decades of cumulative exposures to factors including hypertension that have lead to the plaque, stenosis, ventricle hypertrophy, and fibrosis that underly your heart attack.