By: Andy Chapman
Added: 14 September 2023
High blood pressure (Hypertension) affects more than 1 in 4, it’s the 3rd biggest risk factor for death and disability in England after smoking and poor diet.
Shockingly at least half of all heart attacks and strokes are associated with hypertension and it’s a major risk factor for kidney disease, heart failure and dementi.It’s estimated hypertension costs the NHS over £2.1 billion a year.
High Intensity Interval Training isn’t a form of exercise as such but the way in which you carry out the given exercise. Exercises are performed in intervals consisting of a period of high intensity exercise followed by a period of rest.
High Intensity Interval Training reduces the amount of time that you need to exercise to achieve positive fitness gains with studies showing that you only need to perform HIIT for around half the time of steady state cardio to get the same physical benefits.
High Intensity Interval Training and Hypertension?
HIIT increases the efficiency of your hear so in turn helps to naturally lower your blood pressure, with studies showing that it reduces heart rate and helps to lower blood pressure more than any other form of exercise.
One study showed that 73% of people restored blood pressure to normal using a HIIT training method for just 2 months of a total of 24 exercise sessions.
How to perform High Intensity Interval Training
There are a variety of methods you can use to perform this type of training:
Tabata Training
Is 7-8 repetitions of 20 seconds working and 10 seconds rest. The work should be performed at 90-95% maximum intensity. If you can do more than 8 reps you’re not working hard enough!
EMOM
Every minute on the minute you perform a set number of reps then use the rest of the minute to rest.
Complexes
Is a circuit based approach where you perform repetitions of a set of exercises without rest in-between then rest at the end of the set.
Free Form
This is great for sprinting, you simply go all out maximum for a period of time than don’t start again until your heart rate recovers below a threshold.
Be aware though the high intensity interval training is not a form of exercise that you should just start doing if you do suffer from hypertension, consult you GP first then ideally get an exercise professional to slowly build your fitness up to a level where you can participate in it safely without risk.
Contact here if you would like any more information on how to get started with HIIT training.
Image by Freepik
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