Peter Beck Kim's Other Blog

142/82 and 206.6 lbs - stronger and bigger with KBs and off BP meds, but...

On choosing exercise for BP lowering, along with #4HB

Is there an exercise better than kettlebell swings to optimize blood pressure control?

It's an interesting question -- and maybe one that doesn't need an answer. So far, my BP seems to be dropping pretty well, with a fairly modest (read: much less than before) exercise program. Mondays and Fridays, doing 75 kettelbell swings with a 24 kg RKC 'bell, two-handed, is about it. I've even forgone my prior joint mobility, FlowFit, and 5 Tibetans, and my BP hasn't apparently suffered. This morning's was the lowest systolic BP reading I can remember, ever: 118.

For some things, the most effective way to advance is to sit the hell down.

The focus has been on other, less strenuous tweaks. Diet. Supplementation. Breathing meditation. Some work within minutes, others take weeks. But none require months to significanty lower blood pressure, not even diligent exercise in the sports medicine research.

So, Possibility Numero Uno: Efficient blood pressure reduction may be 80% non-exercise dependent. Right now, it appears to be more like 90-95% due to the tweaks above.

Possibility Numero Dos: Exercise selection may be more a matter of finding a program that doesn't worsen blood pressure, instead of discovering one that lowers it. This is a better way of looking at matters if BP lowering has already occured via Non-Exercise Tweaks (NETs), and the goal is to retain those losses.

Right now, my sample size consists of myself, and the 3 weeks I've been doing Slow Carb + KB swings + NETs of my own devising -- not very generalizable. But if correct, this modified 4HB approach would have tremendous appeal from an efficiency standpoint. If the only way to reach a goal is by a daily, periodized slog, so be it -- but it's a LOT easier to eat right and sip hibiscus tea throughout the day (more on this later) than to lift a canonball or your own bodyweight hundreds of times every day, if the goal is to simply not blast holes in your arteries. The starting point for real bodywork should be a relaxed, ready place with blood pressure already under control, not a daily fight just to keep it in check.

Otherwise, every other exercise goal (strength, mass, agility, martial arts prowess) becomes a juggling act on the edge of disaster. If you must do kettebell swings for half an hour, 3-6 days a week just to keep your BP in check, I guarantee you will have issues exploring much of anything else.

4HB Slow-Carb Day 8: down 6 pounds and 2 inches, BP dropped 16 points

Data mining is a tough but rewarding thing.

I could care less about what works for other people -- and so should you

Seven more steps to 14,000 steps for the day.

Post the 10k mark, most of those were getting long overdue shoes and clothes (translation: the every 5th year or so shopping trip with the wife to do it right).

But the base was the 30 minute treadmill power walk + run. And the 15-20 minute dog walk with da kids. And a ditto length walk with the pupster when waiting for the kids. Coulda journaled in the parking lot, but his baby browns would not be denied. Hard to write, too, with his paws on the back of my head.

Anyway.

In the span of just under a month, I've dropped about 17 lbs, and 30 mm Hg of blood pressure points. While simultaneously neutralizing a periodic, 3 AM freakout fest -- sweats and flushing, no rapid heart rate, didn't dare clock my BP -- and regaining some semblance of a mental middle path.

Brief, heavy strength training sessions didn't help. Numerous short walks throughout the day that added up to 10,000 steps didn't help counteract the lifting. And breathing exercises did not make the sweats go away, which I did not expect at all.

Straight cardio did. 30-40 minutes, morning and night. Good old, "folks were doing this stuff in the '70s" straight cardio.

The weight loss didn't hurt the blood pressure. But I'd already dropped some weight, and the BP didn't budge until I dusted off the treadmill.

There are some awfully darned good reasons for cardio to neutralize stress, drop weight, and reduce blood pressure. John Ratey goes into them, in his book, Spark -- to him, exercise is worthy because of the awetacular good it does for your brain; its benefits for your heart and muscles are secondary.

But bottom line, it's about finding what works, for you as an individual.

It could just have easily been strength lifts with mega weights, or kendo 4 nights a week, or hot yoga, or circuit training at Curves. For me, it was clearly, unequivocally, long session cardio, 6 days a week. The stress neutralization was palpable within 48 hours, and the BP started dropping within 10-14 days. Months of my previous regimen did nothing, for the things I was trying to correct.

There are a number of very strong, very fit individuals out there, who at least publicly disdain aerobics in favor of innovative strength endurance routines. Someday, I hope to count myself among them (minus the disdain).

But for now, I'm sticking with what has worked with a frakkin' shout.

It's stupid, arguing with this kind of success.