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.
