High blood pressure is highly harmful since it increases your chances of developing heart disease and stroke. Hypertension is now much more dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic since studies suggest it can drastically raise your risk of dying from the virus.
Some of the habits needed to combat the potentially fatal illness, such as consuming vitamin-rich meals and exercising 30 to 40 minutes a day, may already be in place. Researchers have now discovered a strategy to minimize your risk of hypertension that does not require any additional physical exercise or dietary adjustments.
Stretching for a half-hour a day, it turns out, is even more beneficial than walking at lowering blood pressure.
A study published recently in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health looked at the blood pressure of two groups of 40 older persons who had high blood pressure. The first group walked for 30 minutes five days a week, while the second group conducted 21 stretching exercises for the same length of time. The stretchers had lower blood pressure at the end of the eight-week research than the brisk walkers.
"I hope people take away the message that stretching is not only good for warming up or preventing muscle injury, but it may also be good for improving your cardiovascular health," says Philip Chilibeck, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Kinesiology, the study's corresponding author.
"When you extend a muscle, the blood vessels in the limbs you're stretching are also stretched. Stretching these blood arteries reduces stiffness, improves blood flow, and lowers blood pressure over time."
"You could add a 10-15 minute per day stretching routine where you stretch the large muscle groups (i.e., quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles) with stretches that last 30 seconds, two to three times, with 15 seconds rest between stretches," Chilibeck suggests if you want to add stretching to your exercise routine.
He claims that adding stretching to your workout program is preferable to entirely replacing aerobic activity because the combination provides the most benefits.