Resistance training is a powerful tool that not only builds strong muscles and strengthens bones but can alter your metabolism to benefit your overall health. Thus, lifting weights is important for those with high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol. Weight training sparks molecular change that can ultimately prevent or improve chronic disease in many people.
Over the next few blogs, we will take a look at how resistance/weight training can benefit particular chronic illnesses and problems.
First, we explored weight training and diabetes.
Here, we’ll briefly explore the effects of weight training on blood pressure.
In the United States, 80 million adults age 20 and older have hypertension – or blood pressure – which is a major risk factor for both heart disease and stroke. It is estimated that by 2030, 41.4% of adults will have hypertension.
Research conducted in 2015 using peripheral heart action training yielded evidence that weight training can reduce blood pressure levels. Through this training, people alternate upper- and lower-body exercises in a circuit, which improved blood flow throughout the body.
While cardio is a good form of exercise to improve blood pressure, resistance/weight training alone has also been found to improve brachial artery endothelial function, which means it has powerful benefits for the blood vessels in the body and heart.
Exercise Suggestion:
Research conducted in 2017 discovered that successful reduction of blood pressure levels can come from performing 7 to 10 exercises working the major muscle groups three days a week. Eventually, bring those workouts to 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 15 repetitions, with one to three minutes of rest in between sets.
Tune in to the next issue to learn about how resistance training can improve obesity.