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Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

sydney.edu.au

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

#61
post #26

FYI, the absolute fastest way to lower blood pressure is to lose weight if you are obese. Rule of thumb is that your systolic blood pressure will drop by 1 mmHg per 1 lb of weight loss, eventually slowing down to 1 mmHg per 2 lbs of weight loss as you get back down to more normal blood pressure range / weight range. Source: went from 160/110 to 120/90 in several months by dropping 60 lbs.

This is true but not the only cause of high blood pressure. It may be worth adding that many people about 1 in 200 have thyroid issues that also raise heart rate and thus BP. There are other causes as well, too many to list. It took me a long time to find some of my causes after losing weight.

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

#62

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…

Tabata makes you want to vomit if you don't have at least a moderate level of fitness. Even if it's great conditioning. So here's the problem.

We go on about what's optimal from a raw time perspective, but time slows subjectively when you suffer. So people who don't conceptualize themselves as athletic, they may have insecurities if not outright skepticism, aren't going to last.

You can make a culty cultural glue to get habits to stick (because fitness is all about habits). You can do CrossFit, the social and positive aspects. That encouragement can bring habit and a change of self perception.

But if you're just a self-driven type, and you're dipping your toes in the water, my observations are that whatever is fun (an individual experience) is what you'll be creating a habit with, and time foes quickly. So explore a brunch of things until you encounter fun. Tennis, running club, weightlifting club. Etc.

So my point is that fitness is a problem around how people experience exercise and training, instead of what's optimal in a paper or in terms what's efficient in terms of time.

Was this prematurely dismissive? Maybe, I'm going by the comments.

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

#63

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…

> Except those two don't really matter when predicting heart attack or stroke risk.

Some cursory googling leads to recent research showing that they do: "According to new research, both high systolic and high diastolic blood pressure can lead to heart attack and stroke." [1]

> HRV results

I feel there is hype over HRV. Mainly a new thing that watches and other monitors can measure, and the number is being hyped. That put aside, the sources I've listened to have concluded that HRV is not really that valuable. Do you know of research showing otherwise? (grant it, some research is good here, for most things medecine and science there needs to be a lot of research. My impression there is a lot of research around blood pressure, thus I am not digging out more sources to show the counter-point).

[1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325861

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

#64

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…

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 point is that exercise can remove the underlying problem. And those who stay active enough don't develop it in the first place. Doc was amazed that I wasn't on any maintenance meds at 55. (Since then I've gone on blood pressure meds but if other health issues were resolved I don't think I would need them.)

Anybody can spike to 180 in a sufficiently stressful situation. (And, personally, I would very much notice 180. Otherwise calm, I'll probably notice 140.)

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

#66

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…

The original experiment was four days per week of the "exhaustive intermittent training" and a fifth day was 30 minutes of zone 2. That's what I followed. It does seem like that fifth day has been forgotten when people talk about Tabata. Like you said, "zone 2 training and HIIT/Tabata are not mutually exclusive," and I've gotten my best results when doing a few hours per week of zone 2 running with a dash of higher-speed intervals or repeats one day.

Now that I'm quite a bit older, despite maintaining my body weight and two-mile running time since then, I'd probably get hurt if I repeated the experiment.

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

#67

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…

According to the link you shared, the Tabata research involved a TINY number of athletic, male, Japanese undergrads. I remember being stunned when I first looked it up years ago.

It's not at all obvious that their findings - which became part of Crossfit "religion" - generalize to both sexes, all fitness levels, and all ages.

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

#68

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.

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 of that, I have to be more careful not injuring myself: my muscles are a lot stronger, so if I use all my strength in an attempt of pushing my bpm, I can hurt my body.

I feel terrible with HIIT either way, which means it does work

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

#69
post #32

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…

Add travelling and dress/undress time and you got an extra 15-30 minutes tacked on

This is what everybody seems to overlook. Gym is usually 15 minutes, add shower and dressing/undressing, the total can easily add 1 hour. I'm so glad I have a gym under my building, because with 30 minutes workout I usually waste an additional 15 minutes (shower, change)

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

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

system > goals

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 do something similar, I gave my body "no option" to skip a workout session. If I skip, I did 2 workout sessions the next day. I hated it, still hate it, but my body now sees it as work and it's committed to doing it.

I still hate it though, but it doesn't take as much effort

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