Heavy Lifting and Stroke

for an accurate BP reading you need serial BP readings in a quiet room with a cuff that fits correctly. I’ve seen people who have hypertension if I let their wife talk. BP is something that has to be checked time and time again before you know that its not a false positive. Exercise is also a great way to lower your BP as is diet.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I got the pic. You didn’t need to manipulate the image, I wasn’t going to clown you based on how you looked anyway. I just know guys lie. You don’t have arms near 18" but I think we both knew that. Despite the image “manipulation” you don’t seem that out of shape considering a lay off like you mentioned.[/quote]

That’s pretty funny. Did he stretch the pic horizontally? Its what I’m gonna do if I ever decide to post a pic.

nope, just blurred my face off, and played with contrast so it gave more definition

I think that OP is worrying too much. Stroke can have a genetic disposition however I really think your forgetting that strokes are pretty much caused by poor lifestyle choices.

My mother has had two strokes and she’s 44 my auntie on my Dads side has had a massive stroke and she is 43. What they both have in common is their lifestyle. Both smokers, both eat crap, both never exercise.

Try not to worry, at your height and weight your not at risk of having an imminent stroke.
Just try and stay healthy, if your blood pressure is high I suggest re-evaluating your diet and tailoring it around that. I wouldn’t stop lifting weights though, if anything that will just make things worse.

Get plenty of cardio and stop worrying so much that’s half of the problem right there.

Thanks a lot for the help guys. Ya the worrying was raising it too I think

When you guys say cardio to prevent it, would it better to do steady state, or intervals? When I was lifting I did only intervals and sled work.

[quote]Alex89 wrote:
When you guys say cardio to prevent it, would it better to do steady state, or intervals? When I was lifting I did only intervals and sled work.[/quote]

I’m speaking mostly of CONDITIONING, not really cardio for the sake of doing cardio. If you can’t walk up a flight of stairs without taking a break (I’ve been there when I was way heavier), then you need to work on your conditioning.

As it stands, I avoid the elevator unless walking up that many stairs would make me sweat through my shirt at work.

Your BP may not even be high, dude. Just because you got one high reading doesn’t give you high blood pressure.

Gonna restest it. Thanks a lot. Back to boxing then hahah

A far more important question than how you should lift with this condition is how you should eat. A condition that runs in the family could mean one of three things 1. Bad food choices which are “traditional” for your family.

Hence, it’s the food patterns they taught you not the genetics they gave you, which causes the issues. 2. Bad genetics. 3. Bad genetics caused by a change to the epigenome which is caused by environment, such as terrible diet for years (look up epigenetics if you don’t know what this is). Both 1 and 3 can be changed over the long term with a better diet, and it’s suspected now, due to current research in epigenetics, that 2 can also be changed with diet!!!

What are you doing for your diet at this point?

It’s likely that you can lower your blood pressure with diet and start with a low level of exercise while doing so, and work up slowly.

Ps my little brother has high blood pressure (he’s skinny and eats crap/drinks a pot or two of coffee a day) and i have low blood pressure. Guess who eats (a lot) better?

My diet is not the best. Basically every weekend (fri, sat and sunday), I go out after and eat a poutine, burger and junk like that. I TRY to eat healthy in the week though. Lots of vegetables, fruits, and lean meats. Im going to have to change my weekend habits though.

[quote]Alex89 wrote:
My diet is not the best. Basically every weekend (fri, sat and sunday), I go out after and eat a poutine, burger and junk like that. I TRY to eat healthy in the week though. Lots of vegetables, fruits, and lean meats. Im going to have to change my weekend habits though.[/quote]

Yeah you definitely need to focus on the diet. Also, I’d look into what foods specifically aid in lowering blood pressure and are not just “good foods”. I am guessing that fish oil and other inflammation-reducing substances would make a huge difference if consumed daily.

I’ve been taking fish oil for the last 4 years religiously. But yes, im going to have to search up some foods that lower bp. thank you!

[quote]Alex89 wrote:
I’ve been taking fish oil for the last 4 years religiously. But yes, im going to have to search up some foods that lower bp. thank you![/quote]

And also which ones you should avoid all together :slight_smile:

For what it is worth, my blood pressure goes from the pre hypertension range to excellent even before any weight loss, when I follow a keto type diet. I won’t pretend to know why, it just does.