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Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

sydney.edu.au

41–50 of 189 posts

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

#41
post #7

How much more evidence do we need, that exercise is good and any amount is better than none?

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 for a couple of weeks and it started creeping back up so it's not a 'cure', but functionally, as long as I keep it up, I have normal BP.

I still have some weight to lose, that can further help things, most likely. And removing sugars also did help since I dropped a lot of liquid I was retaining.

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

#42
post #21
post #15

GASP, exercise is good!? No way. The hard part is finding time and having the motivation. Particularly the latter. There's constantly about 49 other things that feel like they need doing more than purposely exercising and wearing myself out even more than I'm already worn out.

If you live in an area with decent infrastructure, cycling to and from work is a great way to get exercise in without sacrificing much time (in some cases you even save time)

It actually shocks me that someone could manage to regularly go a day without even exercising for 5 minutes.

The car centric lifestyle seems like such a prison.

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

#44

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…

Nitpick: In Tabata's research, "high intensity" meant 170% of VO2max - definitely not easier to do consistently, even if you can voluntarily sustain 170% VO2max. Popular "HIIT" methodology is only loosely inspired by it, and the mechanisms for their merits would be largely unrelated to that of the original Tabata protocol's benefits (which was about demonstrating a way for elite athletes to push anaerobic capacity at the same time as aerobic, not shaving 50 minutes off their cardio routine).

The growing research into how even a small amount of activity can confer significant benefits to the sedentary may be yet another mechanism entirely.

I agree shorter workouts are much easier to stick to though, especially since I'm easily bored.

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

#45

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…

HIIT is and feels awesome, but no way a sedentary person can start straight with that.

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

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I hated running when I made it an option. The mental struggle around whether to run today took up many brain cycles. Now, I run weekday mornings. Tired? Go run. Don’t feel great? Go run. Busy day ahead? Go run. Read an article about the optimal workout routine in mice aged 25-35? Go run. Routine sucks until it works, and then it’s great.

I don't know if it works for everyone, but for me I tell myself "you HAVE to go for a 1 minute run, then just see how you feel" and every time I just end up doing a decent run anyway.

Yes! I do something similar. I tell people I don’t have a running habit.

I have a getting out the door in the morning with my running shoes on habit.

Whatever happens after that is a bonus. The goal is to just step outside in the morning ready for a run.

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

#47
the research metric I'm interested in is "if you exercise for 5 minutes, you should expect to live 1 minute longer" and I would look at that and say "so I lost 4 mins? no thanks"

but if it ever comes out with a surplus, I'll turn on a dime (and turning on a dime for 5 minutes a day probably lowers blood pressure)

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

#48
post #7

How much more evidence do we need, that exercise is good and any amount is better than none?

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…

That’s amazing. How did you regularly monitor your blood pressure?

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

#49
post #7

How much more evidence do we need, that exercise is good and any amount is better than none?

With the caveat that I'm just a random non-expert on the internet who has nevertheless spent too much time reading scattered studies and scholarly opinion articles: We don't need "more" evidence exactly, but rather a better model of how the effects of exercise map to a given individual's physiology. Exercise is good overall, but it's also considerably overhyped due to a procession of weak and narrowly-applicable resu…

It seems a bit silly to me that in many circumstances it's just way more acceptable for exercise to be zero part of your life than the reverse, and that an argument needs to be made for geting more than even 30 mins worth of movement in a week. A culture of getting exercise by default seems like the way things should be, and the should be an affordance for those who can't rather than a luxurious escape from not having to.

It's not as true in some places in some circles, but it's hard not to notice a difference when you temporarily visit the others.

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

#50
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Figure out how to get entertainment in the form of audio, like Youtube debates or audiobooks, so then exercise is simply multitasking.

Youtube debates sound like a way to raise blood pressure immensely

There is trump vs harris; or vi vs emacs. One will raise blood pressure more than the other.
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