A new Australian study into blood pressure conducted by Michael Wheeler of Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute has found that combining 30 minutes of morning exercise with short walking breaks throughout the day could help you control your blood pressure.
Blood pressure is a key risk factor for heart disease and recent studies have shown that extended sitting can raise your blood pressure. The team at Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute theorised that including short exercise breaks throughout the day could help control blood pressure, leading to the creation of this study.
“Older adults, in particular, can accumulate lots of sitting throughout the day, with upwards of two-thirds of their day devoted to sedentary behaviours,” said Michael Wheeler.
The study found that participants had lower average blood pressure across the day when they were in a test condition that included 30 minutes of exercise in the morning. The biggest blood pressure reduction was observed only in women, when the test condition included 30 minutes of exercise in the morning, followed by three-minute walking breaks every 30 minutes during the seven-hour tests.
“We recognise that exercise is good, and we now have the awareness that prolonged sitting can increase blood pressure,” said Dharini Bhammar of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Will you now be adding a morning walk or other type of exercise into your daily routine?
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