I recently started bulking/lifting(1 year ago)for rowing and with in the first 5-6 months went from about 140lb to 180lb. And in june I went to go have my blood pressure checked after a random pharmacy check that yielded 140/75.
Ultimately I got some pretty unsatisfactory response from the office but they told me to come back in a week after reducing sodium and doing more cardio. My bloodpressure did drop to about 127/75 and i began to check my BP on a regular basis.
Now my honest thought was that I had white coat syndrome where your BR raises because of anxiety in certain situtations. Primarily because everytime i’d go to get my BP measured i’d get some obscenely high number like 150/88 to start and then it would gradually make its way down to around 125/70 after repeated measurements.
Now my understanding is that weight gain can increase blood pressure along with other things. BUT, in my specific case i was pretty underweight starting this as im around 6’4’'and im pretty much in the middle of my reccomended weight group for my height at this point.
I know im not going to get a doctors diagonosis on this but im looking for anyone who had similar problems or has insight on this.
What ive done to reduce my BP:
Large increase in both potassium and calcium
Decreased sodium, still not where i want it to be however…around 80% of reccomended total.
4-5 Cardio days a week with around 15 minutes of hard running or ERG’ing.
I dont consume caffine, only eat clean foods, get my fat from ONLY olive oil and nuts. eat ONLY whole grains. Stay away from red meat, processed meats etc.
And honestly after this i still am in such a grey area with my blood pressure. NO doctor seems worried, and i feel like a hypocondriac at times because i cannot get a satisfying answer period.
I dont know…any thoughts?