In an interview with the Health Channel, Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist at Baptist Health South Florida, shares what the best exercises are for lowering blood pressure. 

Brian suggests that the best exercises for lowering blood pressure are going to be ones that get you moving, but not too fast paced. “You don’t want to feel like your eyeballs are going to come out of your head and your heart rate is at your nose,” Brian says. Some good exercises would be walking, biking, or swimming at a moderate to low intensity. If you are exercising at a low intensity, then the duration should be longer and if it is at a  moderate intensity, then a shorter duration works at lowering your blood pressure. 

Anything that increases your heart rate is a great exercise for blood pressure, that includes dancing too. You can go out dancing, you can do Salsa, Zumba, if those are the activities you prefer. “If you don’t like to walk in nature, if you don’t believe in trees, that’s fine. Go to a place where you can go dance and have some fun,” Brian adds, “If you don’t like biking, that’s fine go swimming.” Brian recommends that you find an activity you enjoy doing that allows you to be active. 

Brian goes on to talk about how much you should be exercising per week. He says that it really depends on the person and their schedule because exercising every day just is not realistic for a lot of people. The most important thing is continuity. It should be incorporated into your lifestyle. It is not something you do for six months and then quit. That is the only way you will be able to see the long term benefits. If you can not fit in an hour of exercise a day, Brian suggests that you break it up into intervals. You can do 15 minutes twice a day or 10 minutes in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day. Any activity is better than no activity. “The other thing too is, for those of you who say I just don’t have the time, really take a look at your day and see what you are doing with your time. If you’re sitting at home watching television and eating a bag of potato chips during that same 30-minute segment, or during that hour you were watching TV, you could have done something for yourself,” Brian says. 

Watch the full segment of Brian Betancourt talking about exercises that lower your blood pressure, here: https://youtu.be/11Xqqs9IENk