Exercise is often recommended as a way to improve your heart health and lower your blood pressure, but the result is not immediate. In fact, when you exercise, your systolic blood pressure, or SBP, actually rises while you're giving your heart a workout. Your SBP settles back to its normal rate as your body recovers from your exercise program.
Blood Pressure Readings
Blood pressure is normally measured while you are seated and your body is at rest. It is measured in millimeters of mercury, or mm Hg, and two readings are taken. The top number represents the maximum pressure exerted when the heart contracts. This is the systolic pressure. The diastolic blood pressure reading is the bottom number and represents the minimum pressure in your arteries when your heart is resting. For adults, a normal reading should be 120 over 80 or less.
Exercise
When you exercise, your systolic pressure rises as you ask your heart to work harder. The University of New Mexico reports that while systolic pressure normally rises, diastolic pressure may drop as the arteries become more dilated during a workout. If your systolic pressure doesn't rise, it may be an indication of cardiovascular problems. UNM researcher Len Kravitz notes that systolic pressure steadily declines after exercise if you keep moving. If you immediately sit down, systolic blood pressure can drop abruptly.
Long-term Impact
Although systolic pressure may rise during exercise, an exercise program can gradually bring your resting blood pressure down. If you engage in regular physical activity, your heart becomes stronger. It doesn't take as much effort for a strong heart to pump blood and the pressure on your arteries declines, so your blood pressure goes down. Exercise may also help keep your weight down, and that has a positive effect on your blood pressure, too.
Goals
MayoClinic.com recommends at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity on most days if you want to use exercise to help control your blood pressure. Physical activity can help your systolic pressure drop an average 5 to 10 mm Hg, as much as some blood pressure medicines, according to the clinic. If you have a top blood pressure reading of 140 to 159, and a bottom reading of 90 to 99, you're considered to have mild high blood pressure. If that top number is consistently at 160 or over and the bottom reading is 100 or more, you have moderate to severe high blood pressure.The goal is to bring those numbers down to 120/80 or less.
