Written by: Dr Ranjan Shetty
3 min readNov 12, 2024 07:29 AM IST
First published on: Nov 12, 2024 at 07:28 AM IST
Even five minutes of a brisk walk, stair-climbing or jogging — in short, a moderate or vigorous physical activity — could help lower blood pressure, a new study finds. Many ask me what qualifies as a vigorous activity. Simply put, it is one during which you cannot talk.
Findings from the international ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting, and Sleep) Consortium, led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL) Consortium and conducted on 15,000 people, reveal that adding even small amounts of physical activity, such as uphill walking or stair-climbing, to your daily routine could help you build exercise tempo and lower blood pressure.
What the study says
This reduced systolic blood pressure — the number on top (normal 120, high 130 and above) that indicates how much pressure blood exerts against artery walls when the heart beats — by an average of 0.68 mmHg. It also lowered diastolic blood pressure — the number below (normal 80, high 90 and above) that indicates the pressure blood exerts against artery walls when the heart rests between beats — by an average of 0.54 mmHg.
This is lower than the ideal reduction of 2 mmHg systolic, 1 mmHg diastolic but it’s a start. In fact, the study says that replacing sedentary time with 20-27 minutes of vigorous exercise daily could reduce your heart attack risk by up to 28 per cent. I would say begin with five, then go up to 20. What the study indicates is that you don’t need to join a gym, just building in some high intensity routines for short spells can work.
What’s the link between exercise and blood pressure?
Vigorous exercise strengthens your heart, helping to pump oxygenated blood more efficiently and easily. This reduces the force on your arteries and your heart doesn’t have to pump so hard. In other words, your blood pressure goes down. Blood vessels remain relatively dilated after exercise, which lowers blood pressure. There is a spike at the moment of vigorous activity, when your body functions accelerate. Then as you wind down after a short burst of intense activity, the parasympathetic nervous system gets activated, decreases respiration and heart rate. The BP level goes down and can be sustained through the day. So if you repeat your exercise cycle five days a week, the body can keep low blood pressure levels.
Besides, vigorous exercise can burn calories and keep obesity and high cholesterol at bay, which are risk factors for high blood pressure. If you are overweight, your heart has to pump extra hard to get blood flow around the body and gets stressed. Besides, vigorous exercise keeps the lining of your blood vessels in good shape, increases insulin efficiency and lowers levels of inflammation, which collectively reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
(Dr Shetty is interventional cardiologist at Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru)
Adding even small amounts of physical activity, such as uphill walking or stair-climbing, to your daily routine could help you build exercise tempo and lower blood pressure. (Representative Image) 
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