Exercise for High Blood Pressure - Run High Blood Pressure Away

Alongside a tailored diet, physical activity plays a major role in fighting high blood pressure. You can literally run high blood pressure away.

Scientific studies show that high blood pressure does not necessarily have to be treated with medication alone. A little exercise every day can indeed lower blood pressure. Of course, this does not mean competitive sports. Cycling, tennis, jogging or simply hiking can lower blood pressure readings by 5 to 10 mmHg. To begin with, 30 minutes of exercise three to five times a week is more than enough. For anyone who has not exercised at all until now, regular walks can already help.

If you exercise a lot, you're often protected from high blood pressure just by that. But targeted endurance activity can also lower blood pressure by about 5 to 10 mmHg even when hypertension is already present. Results vary depending on the body's condition and how long the condition has existed. But any movement is better than none!

Important! Before you start exercising, get checked by your doctor!

If you already have high blood pressure, it is essential to have a check-up with your doctor before you begin exercising. If your blood pressure is not yet stable and well controlled, this must be achieved first to protect your body from unnecessary or even dangerous blood pressure spikes.

If your blood pressure is already above 160/95 mmHg at rest, you should have it continuously monitored and checked, including during exercise.

But even if you've been rather inactive or haven't done much or any sport in recent years, you should consult your doctor before starting to exercise. Especially after age 45, changes can occur that alter previously normal blood pressure. Have an exercise ECG done so the specialist can see how much exertion you can handle before your blood pressure rises. If abnormally high values occur, your blood pressure must be controlled with medication before you begin physical activity.

Which sports are suitable?

Any kind of endurance exercise is beneficial because these activities place a continuous low-level load on the body - examples include walking, Nordic walking, regular brisk walks, running or cross-country skiing. Swimming, cycling or rowing are also options. Ball sports (when played in moderation), such as tennis or table tennis, have the added advantage that the need for a partner makes it less likely that a game will be skipped. Dancing is another enjoyable way to get moving.

Isometric exercises (static strength exercises), such as wall sits or planks (forearm planks), are also effective against high blood pressure. This was demonstrated by a large review study from England.

It is often easier to motivate yourself to exercise together with others, for example in a training group. Why not take a look at what your local sports club or gym has to offer? They usually offer a variety of classes where you can exercise with like-minded people.

Tip: Don't expect too much from yourself. Especially at the beginning, make activity easy to fit into your daily routine. That could be a walk during your lunch break, a few laps of swimming after work, or commuting by bike.

Because blood pressure naturally rises during activity, light endurance exercise is best to start with. As your endurance improves, you can begin moderate strength training. Regular muscle-building is additionally recommended, since greater muscle mass leads to beneficial metabolic changes. These can, for example, help normalize insulin metabolism. Acquired insulin resistance often goes hand in hand with high blood pressure.

Strength training helps combat high blood pressure

No matter which sport you do:

Start with only moderate intensity and increase it slowly. Overloading the cardiovascular system can lead to dangerous blood pressure increases and spikes. Always be guided by an experienced sports therapist.

This is especially true for strength training with weights, to learn proper breathing, the right choice of weights and correct movement technique.
A Brazilian study published in 2023 also demonstrated the positive effect of tailored strength training on blood pressure.

1x, 2x, 3x ...? How often should you train?

If you're completely untrained, start with three days a week of five to ten minutes of walking or brisk walking (moderate activity) and gradually build this up to 30 minutes or more if you like.

Tip: Schedule regular meet-ups with like-minded people (friends, neighbors, colleagues ...) to move together.

If your fitness has improved, you could move on to a more demanding activity. If that is then no longer enough, you can train on additional days. The optimum is to train for 30 minutes each day, five days a week.
Under the guidance of an experienced sports physician, you will surely succeed in getting your high blood pressure under better control. A heart rate monitor is very helpful.

Please discuss with your cardiologist what your optimal training heart rate should be - a simple rule like "the exercise heart rate must not exceed 200 minus your age" may be too strenuous for you.

Consistency is important - let your body become healthier again through your efforts to improve your fitness!

First and foremost, exercise should be fun! If exercising every day or three days a week feels like too much for you, you do not need to feel guilty. Not everyone is able to overcome their inner resistance to that extent, but getting no exercise at all is deadly! If you have been completely inactive until now, even taking a weekly walk when you did not do so before is a huge step forward!
Gentle exercise, an increased breathing rate, and more oxygen in the lungs and body are simply good for your health.

Your inner couch potato will have a harder time with you. You'll feel better and after a while you'll want to do more ...

Who can lower their blood pressure through endurance exercise?

In her doctoral thesis, a PhD candidate at Professor Tim Meyer's Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine identified a correlation that can predict whether a person will benefit from endurance exercise in terms of lowering their blood pressure. In her study, she found that participants whose blood pressure fell below the baseline value during the resting phase after a treadmill stress test were also very likely to lower their blood pressure permanently through exercise.
She was awarded Saarland University's Friedrich Trendelenburg Prize for her research.

Interesting results were also obtained by participants in an Argentine study from August 2021. All 53 participants had elevated blood pressure that could not be lowered even with at least three antihypertensive drugs. They were randomly assigned to an observation group and a control group while medication was continued in both groups. The observation group additionally did supervised endurance exercise three times a week. After 3 months, the mean 24-hour systolic blood pressure was reduced by 6.2 mmHg and the diastolic by 5.1 mmHg. In the comparison group, systolic blood pressure even rose slightly over the same period. However, not every exercising participant achieved a blood pressure reduction. In the observation group there were both people who responded exceptionally well to the program with a marked drop in blood pressure and so-called non-responders whose blood pressure did not decrease as a result of the exercise program.

Lower blood pressure without sweating?

People whose blood pressure is in the high-normal range can also benefit from the gentler form of exercise, Tai Chi. Chinese researchers found this. They compared a total of 349 study participants who were divided into two groups: one group did Tai Chi (Yang style) four times a week for a year, while the other group did "aerobic" activity-not classic 1980s aerobics, but endurance activities like jogging, stair climbing, cycling or brisk walking. After 12 months, the Tai Chi group showed a greater reduction in high-normal blood pressure than the comparison group doing endurance exercise. 21.8% had reached normal blood pressure, compared to only 15.6% in the comparison group. The researchers suspect this is due to the relaxing effect of Tai Chi exercises. In the researchers' opinion, Tai Chi could be well suited for preventing high blood pressure.

Sources

This article is from Tensana – the leading app since 2011, helping hundreds of thousands of people monitor their blood pressure every day. Our content is based on carefully researched, evidence-based data and is continuously updated (as of 12/2025).

Author Sabine Croci is a qualified medical assistant with many years of experience in internal medicine and cardiology practices as well as outpatient care, and has headed the specialist editorial team at Tensana since 2015. Thanks to her extensive additional qualifications as an emergency medical technician, first responder, and in various areas of therapy and emergency care, she provides well-founded, practical, and reliably verified information.

Exercise for High Blood Pressure - Run High Blood Pressure Away

Who can lower their blood pressure through endurance exercise?

Lower blood pressure without sweating?

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