Question: Is it dangerous if a person lifts heavy often and at the same time have a high blood pressure or is hypertensive? Thanks!
Answer: Sure, lifting does temporarily increase blood pressure, especially if you hold your breath. So make SURE to breath properly when you’re lifting.
We do tend to hold our breath when lifting in order to increase the pressure in the thoracic cavity which, in turn, helps to stabilize the spine when lifting. We doctors use a fancy term for this: the Valsalva Maneuver.
Although it’s normal to use the Valsalva Maneuver when lifting, the key is to not hold your breath for long at all in order to avoid excessively elevating your blood pressure.
On the other hand, exercise in general helps to lower blood pressure. So, unless your doc has told you not to lift, it would probably do you good overall.
But again, do NOT hold your breath! The longer you hold your breath, the more your blood pressure will tend to elevate.
Dr Clay
Hi All, when I was young and hypertensive it was forbidden for us to lift any kind of weight. As many things in medicine it was a prejudice, several years later the recommendation changed and now we can do anything.
Nevertheless, we have to try to take the least amount of medicine by having good eating and exercise habits, taking 3.000 of fish oil everyday and add some natural remedies for high blood pressure.
Please read more information at http://www.omega-3-fish-oil-wonders.com/high-blood-pressure.html
Thanks,
Alfredo E.
Dr. Clay
I agree with you about not lifting weights if the MD didn`t give the clearance. What I would like to comment is that even some people with mild hypertension can benefit from some weightlifting, not all weightlifting is equal. Using heavy weights cause more compression on the vessels than light weights, when that happens the heart has to pump stronger to get blood delivered to the body (just as happens when hypertension hasn`t been diagnosed); on the long run this is the basic mechanism to pathological left ventricle hypertrophy.