3 Best Types of Exercises to Help Control High Blood Pressure

If you are trying to control your blood pressure, your healthcare provider has likely recommended increasing physical activity. The types of exercises best suited for lowering blood pressure include aerobic exercise, resistance training, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts.

1. Aerobic (Cardio) Exercise

Aerobic, or cardiovascular, exercise incorporates your large muscles, like the ones in your arms and legs. It increases your heart rate and makes you breathe harder. As you continue doing aerobic exercise, you build endurance and your heart and lungs become stronger.

Some examples of aerobic exercise include:

• Walking or jogging
• Swimming laps in a pool or doing water aerobics
• Bicycling
• Jumping rope
• Dancing
• Playing sports like tennis, basketball, or soccer

How It Affects Your Blood Pressure

Research has found that aerobic exercise helps lower both systolic (the top number in a blood pressure reading) and diastolic (the bottom number in a blood pressure reading) blood pressure.

In studies, aerobic exercise helped reduce blood pressure regardless of whether people increased their exercise over time or continued to do the same level of activity. Systolic blood pressure went down between 10 and 11 millimeters of mercury (mmHg), while diastolic blood pressure went down between 5 and 6.5 mmHg.

Aerobic exercise may have both immediate and long-term effects on blood pressure. One review of studies found that, in adults with high blood pressure, an aerobic exercise session lowered blood pressure for up to 24 hours.

2. Resistance Exercise

Resistance exercises help improve your muscle strength and power. Resistance exercises include dynamic resistance (lifting weights) and isometric resistance (contracting and holding a specific muscle or group of muscles).

Some examples of resistance exercises include:

• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Planks
• Wall sits
• Lifting free weights or using weight or resistance machines

How It Affects Your Blood Pressure

One meta-analysis found that in people with high blood pressure, dynamic resistance training helped reduce systolic blood pressure by 6 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 5 mmHg.

Another analysis found that exercise in general is effective in helping reduce blood pressure, and isometric exercises, like wall sits and planks, are particularly effective.

3. HIIT

HIIT alternates short periods of high-intensity exercise (1-4 minutes) with periods of rest or low-intensity activity. There are different ways you can incorporate HIIT into your routine, such as:

• Alternating brisk walking or jogging with walking at a normal pace
• When swimming laps, swim one lap at a faster pace, alternating with a few laps at your normal pace
• Taking HIIT workout classes

How It Affects Your Blood Pressure

One meta-analysis looked at 31 clinical trials of the effects of different types of exercise on blood pressure. The researchers found that HIIT was consistently effective in helping to reduce both systolic (an average reduction of 5.7 mmHg) and diastolic (an average reduction of 4.6 mmHg) blood pressure when measured on a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor.

How Much Exercise Should I Do?

Recommendations for physical activity include the following:

• For adults, experts recommend a total of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or a combination of both. Think: exercises that get your heart rate up, such as taking a brisk walk, dancing, or playing tennis.
• Break up your exercise into smaller chunks, such as taking a brisk half-hour walk five days a week, or even taking three, 10-minute walks five days a week.
• Add at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity per week, such as lifting weights or resistance training.
• Try moving more in general and increasing the amount of intensity of exercise gradually.

It’s important to get the green light from your healthcare provider before starting or changing your exercise program if you have high blood pressure or any other health conditions. Your provider will consider individual factors such as your blood pressure levels, other health conditions, medications, and current fitness level when recommending an appropriate exercise program.