Tips to keep you safe while exercising with high blood pressure.

Are you at risk?

Consisting of two numbers, your blood pressure is a measure of how hard your blood pushes against your arteries when your heart is beating (this is the top number, systolic blood pressure) and when it is resting (the bottom number, or diastolic blood pressure). Ideally, your blood pressure should not exceed 120/80 millimeters of mercury while resting. If you live with high blood pressure, you may fear exercise, as lifting weights, running, swimming, and other activities can temporarily raise your blood pressure. However, having high blood pressure isn’t a license to stay out of the gym.

Here’s what you should know to exercise safely, even if your blood pressure isn’t in tip-top shape.

Start Easy

Afraid of pushing yourself too hard too fast? There’s nothing wrong with a little caution – especially if you’re planning to exercise with a pre-existing condition, such as high blood pressure. Instead of going full force at the gym and then running three miles to get home, start out with a short walk, a light jog, or a gentle workout in the gym.

As you begin to know how your body responds to exercise, you can push yourself a little harder and longer. Just be careful. Unless you take other active steps to keep your blood pressure in check, you could suffer a sudden spike in blood pressure that could be extremely dangerous.

Don’t Stress

To get the maximum benefits of exercise, you’ll need to stress your body. However, you should be careful to avoid exercises that put sudden and intense exertion if you have high blood pressure. Some of these exercises include heavy weight lifting, push-ups, pull-ups, and even strenuous digging in your yard.

Already in pretty good shape? Been exercising a while in an effort to improve your high blood pressure? Your body should be prepared to withstand the added stress of intense exercises. But before launching into these strenuous and demanding exercises, speak with your physician or an exercise professional to ensure your safety.

Make It Routine

Want to put yourself at risk for dangerous surges in blood pressure at the gym? Then only go every once in a while, and work out as hard as you can. Prefer to keep your blood pressure in check and help it improve? Then you’ll need to get to the gym at least three times a week for 30 minutes at a time.

Have lots of life to take care of and feel the urge to skip out on your workout here and there? Fight the temptation! With each visit to your local gym, you burn off calories and help your heart beat better. And when your heart is working as it should, your heart requires less effort to push blood throughout your body. Ultimately, this leads to something you’d love to achieve: lowered blood pressure!

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If you’re doing everything right by spending enough time in the gym, following a wholesome and nutritious meal plan, taking the advice of top coaches and getting plenty of rest, you’re not maximizing your full potential until you incorporate mental training. Mental training is what divides great from exceptional. To be physically outstanding you have to train your brain. It’s the one thing that even very committed athletes and exercise enthusiasts often overlook. Mental preparation and attitude before and during training are what gets you through a 20 mile run in the rain and beating your best time.

Whether you’re seriously committed to developing muscle and definition, want to be a better basketball player or perfect your golf swing, you must include mental training. The more competitive you become, the more important your mental game becomes. Tiger Woods visually rehearses each aspect of his swing prior to picking up his club. Like your physical skills, your mental skills will improve through practice. If your mental game needs strengthening, it’s time to give your mind a workout.

Mental training can:
Increase motivation
Strengthen your focus and concentration
Tap your unconscious
Find your ideal “psyched up” state
Sharpen your imagery and mental rehearsal
Build mental toughness

Mental training will help you develop the outlook and skills you need to succeed as a recreational exerciser or a professional athlete. Some of our most outstanding and ageless athletes rely on mental training, including all-time great Michael Jordan. You can incorporate mental exercises into a physical workout by learning, developing and practicing specific psychological techniques.

Some of those techniques include:

Short- and long-term goal setting This can be as short as each workout and even each set. Goals should be specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and have a deadline. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Having clear goals in your mind gives you a mental picture of the outcome you aspire to, helps to keep you on track and moving in the direction you desire.

Positive thinking and affirmation Having sayings in your head that are rehearsed will be critical when it comes time to dig down deep for the physical ability to perform. Phrases like “If it’s going to be it’s up to me”, “I am unstoppable”, and “I am a champion” can be the difference in pulling through when the going gets tough.

Performance profiling – Mentally rehearse and visualize exactly how you will perform throughout your event. Picture the positions your body will be in, how efficiently you will be breathing, the strength in your legs, the balance of your torso, the postures necessary to successfully perform and so on. There is a proven transfer from the mental to the physical.

Motivational strategies Know what makes yourself tick. How are you inspired? Where does your competitive drive most thrive from? Know precisely what to say to yourself when you are called upon to perform.

Relaxation and complete breathing Regardless of if your event involves a team or is done solo or if it requires gross or fine motor skills, the use of breathing for relaxation and concentration can keep you centered and in control of your and your opponents moves.

Attention control techniques – If you find yourself becoming physically or mentally challenged, having a technique to regain you focus can quickly change your state and put you back in the game performing your best. For example, you may see a pitcher adjust his cap as part of a ritual to refocus solely on the upcoming pitch rather than become lost in the stakes of the entire game.

Self-coaching You can be your own worst enemy, or your biggest fan. When you are called upon to engage your physical skills, become your own internal coach. Use the best advice given to you by coaches as well as your own good judgement.

Just as you train your muscles by lifting weights, you can develop mental skills by practicing them diligently and consistently. You can build the body you’ve always wanted and perform at your best when you harness the power of mind and muscle.Many successful athletes have described their best performance as a time when everything seemed to flow. Their movements seemed automatic, and they were completely focused. Usually this experience was accompanied by a strong sense of confidence and being in control. This experience is described by sports psychologists as the “ideal performance state.”

To get into an “ideal performance state,” you need to first improve your performance through mental strategies that help you overcome obstacles and refine your workouts. The process also involves dealing with the pressures of competition, finding ways to increase satisfaction and enjoyment and promoting healthy self-esteem. Mental training can also provide assistance with injury rehabilitation. When injured, you can take a more active role in your healing processes by engaging both your conscious and unconscious mind to restore a sense of wholeness and health. In a fascinating experiment, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation discovered that a muscle can be strengthened just by thinking about exercising it.

For 12 weeks (five minutes a day, five days per week), a team of 30 healthy young adults imagined either using the muscle of their little finger or of their elbow flexor. Dr. Vinoth Ranganathan and his team asked the participants to think as strongly as they could about moving the muscle being tested, to make the imaginary movement as real as they could. The little-finger group increased their pinky muscle strength by 35 percent, compared to a control group that did no imaginary exercises and showed no strength gains. The other group increased elbow strength by 13. 4 percent. What’s more, brain scans taken after the study showed greater and more focused activity in the prefrontal cortex than before. The researchers said strength gains were due to improvements in the brain’s ability to signal muscle.

Try the following exercise as an example of the power of mind/body training. Close your eyes and concentrate on your physical performance. Be acutely aware of the space you occupy as you visualize your legs, chest, back, hips, neck, breathing, etc. As you explore your physical movement, connect with your breathing and release all unnecessary tension out of your muscles. Discover the increased focus you develop. Visualize yourself performing, relaxed and powerful. It’ll take practice to clear your head of “noise” and implement mind/body training. Through enhanced awareness of your body, you will be able to perform more efficiently and reach desired goals sooner. Ultimately, using mental training will increase your performance and keep your body young.

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Vegetarian Mock Bacon and Tofu Scramble

(2 servings)

2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
4 vegetarian mock bacon slices
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 small onion, chopped
8 ounces firm tofu (or smoked tofu)
A pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon freshly minced salad herbs
Salt to taste

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the vegetarian mock bacon and cook quickly. Remove before it becomes crisp. Cut into bite sizes and set aside. Add the remaining oil and saute the garlic and onion. Add the tofu, cayenne pepper, and quickly saute them. Add the mock bacon and herbs.

Lightly season with salt and serve immediately.

Option:

Add cooked diced potatoes/sweet potatoes and/or vegetables such as green onions, bell peppers, zucchinis, mushrooms, or tomatoes. You may also top with your favorite salsa or mix in some low-sodium soy sauce. Substitute tofu with eggs or egg whites.

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Step 1: Visualize what you want

Picture yourself attaining the goal you want to achieve. Some of us see still pictures, and others see moving pictures (like a movie). Some of us see our pictures or movies in color, and others see it in black and white. However it is that you see your picture, get in tuned to the details of the picture.

Step 2: Use all of your senses when visualizing

As you visualize, start to pay attention to the sounds associated with your picture. Also, notice how you feel in that picture. This feeling should be both emotional and physical. How does your body feel fitting back into those skinny jeans? How does that make you feel, emotionally? The more details you have in your picture, the more you are sending a message to your brain that this is really happening. Before you know it, it really happens.

Step 3: Write down your goals

Writing down your goals is a great way to stay focused on what you want. You can place your goals where you see them daily. Some people also just like to write their goals then put them away. That’s fun, because when you go back weeks, month, or even years later and read your goals you are amazed at what you have accomplished.

Step 4: Believe in your goals

Choose goals that you truly believe in your heart that you will attain. Understand, as humans, we tend to send ourselves “doubting messages” when we think of goals we want. Acknowledge what that is, just doubt, and mentally set it aside. Think about what you want. Believe in yourself and in your goal. Strive for it one step at a time.

Step 5: Challenge yourself

Choose goals that you know in your heart you can attain. With that, make sure you are challenging yourself. It’s that stretching moment in our lives that keep us motivated. It tough to be challenged, yet it feels great! Just to know you’re always stretching to go a little further is motivating in itself. It keeps you from getting bored and stagnant.

Step 6: Get support from friends and family

Tell those that love and care for you about your goals. Simply talking about it will motivate you (as well as inspire them). They can hold you accountable, encourage you, and celebrate with you.

Step 7: Strive for continued progress

As you accomplish each goal, replace it with a new goal that will push you to another level. This goes back to keeping yourself challenged, and avoiding boredom. When we find ourselves at a stagnant place in our lives, we tend to start to go backwards. Always give yourself something for which to strive.

Step 8: Reward yourself for accomplishments

To stay motivated, give yourself a reward for what you have accomplished. This moment of celebration is so important. It’s called positive reinforcement, and it feels so good that you want to set another goal and celebrate it again. Rewards can be anywhere from a pat on the back to a week-long vacation.

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What you can do to make sure what you put in your body will give you a boost in the gym.

Every day, you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or maybe you’ve found the perks of eating more frequent meals. No matter if you’re stuck on a traditional three-meal-a-day routine or have moved into the five- or six-meal plan, you need to eat the right stuff to be prepared for whatever is thrown your way in the middle of your workout.

So what should be on your mind while eating? Exercise. And here are a few eating tips that keep your upcoming workout front and center.

Consider the Amount

Yes, food gives you energy. Unfortunately, eating lots and lots of food doesn’t necessarily give you lots and lots of energy. Quite the opposite. Eating too much can cause you to feel heavy, sluggish, or in need of a bathroom break. On the other side of the eating spectrum, not eating enough will cause you to feel weak and unable to complete your exercise routine.

Neither is acceptable. Instead, you should keep your body fed evenly throughout the day. Just be careful not to eat a small meal less than two hours before exercising. If a hunger pain hits you within two hours of your impending workout, take care of it with a healthy snack. And if you must indulge in a large meal, make sure you have three or four hours before you plan to hit the gym. Otherwise, you may wind up falling asleep on the stair stepper.

Keep It Quality

Just as important as the amount of food you eat is the quality of food you eat. Sure, you may be able to get away with a fast-food burger now and then, but if your diet regularly consists of fatty choices, you’re going to have a hard time motivating yourself to get to the gym and work out once there.

To give your body the exercise advantage it deserves, eat well all the time. Start with a healthy breakfast with whole grains, fruit, and low-fat milk. For your other meals, avoid high-calorie, fatty foods. And when snacking before a workout, go with a banana, a fruit smoothie (use yogurt instead of ice cream or frozen yogurt), and granola bars. If you’ve got an intense workout planned, you may want to go for an energy bar.

Finish Strong

Now that you’ve eaten to help your workout go well, you should set your eyes on preparing for your next routine. A great way to do that is through your diet. After you finish working out, eat foods with protein and carbohydrates. Don’t feel hungry right away? Drink a sports drink to replenish what your body lost during the routine.

Once you feel the first hint of hunger, toss some cheese on top of a few crackers, grab a handful of nuts, whip up a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or sit down for lunch. Just make sure what you eat is healthy and will help your body recover after your workout. This way, you’ll feel great after working out, which will provide increased incentive to eat right and get back in the gym tomorrow.

Don’t Dehydrate!

In the midst of eating for exercise, don’t neglect one of your body’s most basic needs: water. Since more than half of your body is made up of water, your need for H2O cannot be overstated.

So before you walk into the gym, while you’re working out, and after you’ve cooled down and moved on with your day, you should be drinking enough water to keep your body well hydrated. Losing more sweat than you can replace with water? A sports drink may be just what you need. Just don’t drink them when you’re sedentary, as they often contain extra sugar and calories that can be a detriment to your good health.

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