This is a response I wrote to a client’s questions on blood pressure.
Blood Pressure Ranges
120/80 is considered “normal”.
Plus or minus 25 on 120 or plus or minus 15 on 80 is considered normal range. Anything above that is considered hypertension.
Regular cardio and preferably in beautiful or natural surroundings will do wonders for your blood pressure.
Doing some giving of yourself without expectation of reward will also help your blood pressure (such as charity work, for example).
Safety for high blood pressure circa 1993-99: no breath holds, which means maximal lifting, especially weight over head or heart higher than head.
Blood Pressure Hacks
Low sodium means drink celery juice.
Low potassium means drink carrot juice.
So depending on your individual readings, you can come up with a controlled formula- EG- drink celery juice on Mondays, drink carrot juice on Tuesdays, or perhaps drink both juices on Wednesdays.
Cardio and Energy Systems
Let’s define “cardio”:
Steady state repetitive rhythmic activity?
Walking, cycling, swimming, running are typical ones.
Kettlebell clean and jerks or snatches are 5-10 mins of rhythmic activity repeated (usually in time with breath). While both of these movements involve lifting a weight above your head, the weights do not have to be heavy.
It’s the duration that determines intensity.
10 seconds of “all-out exercise” is not cardio. You will be in oxygen debt afterwards; that means you will puff.
10 seconds to 3 minutes is anaerobic or without oxygen which is around 70-90% of all-out effort. You will be puffing during this activity. Typically this is an interval duration in speed work training.
Aerobic, with oxygen or cardio starts from around 3 mins and continues for hours. Intensity is below 70% and you could probably maintain a conversation.
All three energy systems require the heart to work. The higher your blood pressure and the less conditioned you are, the lower the intensity and perhaps longer the duration you will need to get the desired effect. So if you are going for a long walk, why not unplug and do it in a place where you are saturated with oxygen and biophillia.
