Walking is essential for the health of people with high blood pressure. If possible, you should buy a pedometer and carry it around all day to count the number of steps you have walked. The goal is about 10,000 walking steps per day to maintain your health at its peak. Make the most of every moment for walking and other light exercises:
- Park your car far away in the parking lot, even limiting your search for parking near your work or shopping mall that you frequent.
- Choose public transport (bus) as soon as possible. The remote station will facilitate you to walk more.
- If your home is close to work, cycle to work as an exercise boost.
- Stair climbing: The recommended intensity of exercise is climbing one floor up and climbing two floors down. Once you get used to it, you can increase the climb from two floors up and climb down at least five floors. In the office, you should choose to use the toilet on a higher floor to increase the chances of climbing the stairs up and down. At home, do not leave items near the stairs to help create the opportunity that you have to move and climb stairs more every time you want to get something.
- When you go to work, practice walking a little more. Go around the building once before going inside. Go to the opposite side of the building and go to work.
- Walk to lunch. Take a minimum of 15 minutes to walk during your lunch break. This will boost your energy for the rest of the day and dispel the midday moodiness.
Note: Before starting an exercise program, people with high blood pressure should consult their doctor about an exercise program and any other restrictions.
The benefits of exercise
Exercise will help you improve:
- Balance
- Strengthen bones
- Increase muscle mass
- Improve digestive function
- Boost metabolism
- Lower mortality rate
- Easy to carry out daily activities
- Improved lipid profile test results (low cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides, and high HDL)
- Improve the efficiency of the heart
- Decrease the resting rate of the heart
- Hypotension
- Increase mobility of joints
- Increase confidence
- Pain relief
- Prevent or limit signs of depression
- Improve your ability to manage stress
- Increase mental capacity.
