PRESSURE POINTS
The positive effects of exercise on blood pressure.
Most people are not fully aware of how exercise improves and regulates blood pressure several different ways. One is increased cardiac output and lowered heart rate. Others include fluid regulation, capillary (small blood vessel) formation and improved body composition (body fat percentage).
The amount of fluid or water in your blood plays a huge role in determining your blood pressure. The more fluid blood has, or the greater the blood volume, the higher the pressure tends to be. This is why patients are often prescribed diuretics to control blood pressure. Diuretics eliminate fluid by promoting urine production in the kidneys, resulting in decreased blood volume. One of the key factors in blood volume control is making sure all of the fluid circulates properly. When it does, the body naturally eliminates it along with waste products through the kidneys. During normal circulation, fluid leaks out of the smallest blood vessels, the capillaries. Normally, that fluid gets picked back up by the lymphatic systems, which puts the fluid back into the bloodstream. One of the biggest tools the body has for pushing the fluid through the lymphatic system to the blood is the contracting and relaxing of the muscles in the body that surround the lymphatic system tubes. When the muscles contract and relax during exercise, the fluid gets moved more efficiently back into circulation. These same contractions also help the veins with returning the blood to the heart. This also lowers the workload on the heart and helps with cardiac output.
Getting in the habit of exercising establishes long-term effects. Over a long period of time, your body can undergo small changes that are nearly undetectable in the short-term. One of these effects is the development of additional small capillaries and other blood vessels. Chronic exercise places demand on muscles and other tissues to get blood. As the body adapts to this habit of exercise, it makes new blood vessels to help deliver the needed oxygen to the working muscles. The simple addition of these new vessels spreads the fluid out over a larger area. This lowers the amount of pressure left in the other vessels. Not only are these new vessels helpful in spreading out the pressure, but they are formed in muscles that help pump the blood and fluid back to where it needs to be.
This brings us to another prime effect of exercise on blood pressure: Chronic exercise has the long-term effect of lowering body weight, especially body fat. Lowering the amount of fat the body carries around reduces the load on the heart. Body fat does nothing to help propel the body during activity and does not have the pumping ability of muscles to help with circulation. It's just dead weight. Imagine strapping on a 20- or 30-pound weight and walking around with it all day. The heart is going to work a lot harder than it would if the weight were not there. Unlike the small vessels in the muscles, the capillaries in fat tissue are not as healthy. They clog easier and do not have the built-in pumping that vessels found in muscles have. The lack of pumping assistance from fat also increases the load on the heart because it has to do all of the work to get blood through the arteries and veins and back to the heart.
We often think of exercise as being something that medical professionals recommend or that television personalities or athletes do to look better or perform in a sport. The truth is, exercise is literally medicine for your body. The more exercise you “take” the better off you will be. Unlike many medications, the list of side effects is small and may include a longer, more active life, increased emotional health and improved brain function. Activity does not have to be the same level of exercise that a professional athlete would do, but it does need to be consistent and progressively longer and of higher intensity as your body improves. It has been said that the greatest journey begins with a single step. We want to remind you that to continue on the journey, it takes making repeated steps over and over, day after day. Only then will you get true, pure health.
Other Trusted Sources:
Mayo Clinic
American Heart Association
Fitness
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