My buddy, who is in his early thirties, was just informed he has hypertension. He looks like he is in decent shape, not obese or anything. They told him to starting doing cardio, but NOT to lift weights. Does anyone know why that is? Thanx. Herc
This is probably due to the fact that he has fairly HIGH blood pressure, and durring a lift you increase your blood pressure as you strain (valsalva). This could send his BP raging, and the doctor doesn’t want him to pop a vessel in his brain and be neurologically impaired. Secondly, the “do cardio thing” is because that type of exercise is known to lower your blood pressure, basically by vasodilation of muscle and skin artery beds, thus dropping overall blood pressure. Once he gets his pressure under control, he should be able to go back to lifting…but it’s no joke. People DIE of hypertension (MI’s, strokes, kidney problems).