Blood Pressure and Morning Exercise

From Men’s Health, reporting on the recent findings of a group of British researchers on the topic of arterial hypertension:

Morning exercise may be risky if you have high blood pressure or other heart disease risk factors. In the morning arteries are less able to widen for the increased blood flow (i.e. they are less flexible), especially in people who are [first] starting an exercise program. This could loosen vulnerable plaque build up in the arteries and cause a blockage. More studies will have to access whether regular exercise helps arteries open up [and regain flexibility].

Are There Morning Exercise Health Benefits?
According to this finding morning exercise health benefits may only exist for people who have normal or good levels of health.  This information on high blood pressure and morning exercise also reminds me of my previous post on high blood pressure and exercise which essentially said the same thing.

It seems that it is fairly obvious that for those with high blood pressure who have not been involved in a routine workout program, you should be very careful with the way you set about it. According to my previous post, you should take it easy with your exercise as your heart is not acclimated to the stress.

This report suggests that working out in the morning may cause excess stress on the arteries. This leads me to believe that it is probably best for those with high blood pressure to begin their exercise program slowly by exercising after eating in the afternoon and evening as well as looking into the leading causes of hypertension and curbing some bad habits that may be fueling your hypertension..

High Blood Pressure & Exercise
Walking periodically throughout the day as opposed to taking one big long hike daily has been shown to do the best for the heart and walking after eating meals has been shown to immediately neutralize much of the negative effects of cholesterol and fats in your food. These are just some ways to deal with high blood pressure.  This post on how to lower blood pressure goes more into detail on the subject.

Aside from eliminating all cholesterol and fats simply walking after eating can achieve more benefit than walking before eating can. Further extrapolation of the theory suggests that after a regular exercise regimen has been employed then gradual intensity can be added and eventually exercise in the mornings may become less risky as chronic hypertension decreases and arterial elasticity returns.

Source
Men’s Health, Oct. 2009