Women's Health May 23, 2026 0 Comments

Unlock the Power of THIS Exercise: The Shockingly Simple Way to Crush High Blood Pressure and Dominate Your Health!

Ever wonder if the secret to lowering your blood pressure could be hiding in your workout playlist? I mean, we all know moving more is good for us—but what if I told you that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training could be your heart’s best friend, knocking down those numbers better than you expected? It’s wild, right? New research looked at over 31 studies and confirms that mixing brisk walks, swims, and strength sessions doesn’t just tone your bod; it seriously helps tame your blood pressure. And for those of us juggling busy schedules—hey, a solid 4-minute read is all it takes to get the scoop on how to get your heart pumping right and keep that pressure in check. Stick with me, and I’ll break down why some workouts pack a bigger punch and how you can craft a routine that sticks—because consistency is way cooler than chaos. Ready to sweat smarter, not harder? LEARN MORE

4 min read

New research that reviewed over 31 studies suggests that a combination of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and HIIT can reduce blood pressure, with aerobic exercise and resistance training being an especially effective combo.

Aerobic exercise includes brisk walking, jogging, rowing, cycling, swimming, and elliptical training.

Experts emphasize creating a workout routine you’ll follow and aiming for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week, plus strength training twice a week.

There’s no dearth of options when it comes to the kinds of workout routines you can choose. But if you’re on the fence when it comes to the right type of exercise for you, consider this: New research just identified two different types of workouts that can meaningfully lower your blood pressure over time.

This news is important since high blood pressure is linked to a slew of serious health complications, including heart attack and stroke, making it important to do what you can to keep your numbers down. Not only that, high blood pressure doesn’t usually cause symptoms, so it’s hard to know if you’re silently dealing with this health issue.

All forms of exercise are helpful for heart health and blood pressure to some degree. But if you want to get the best bang for your buck, this latest research suggests there are specific types worth considering more seriously. Here’s why.

Meet the experts: Cheng-Han Chen, MD, interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA; and Jessica Hennessey, MD, PhD, cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

What did the study find?

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, reviewed and analyzed data from 31 randomized controlled trials involving more than 1,345 participants and 67 intervention arms.

Researchers found that a combination of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) reduced blood pressure over 24 hours. Aerobic exercise was also linked to the most consistent decrease in ambulatory blood pressure. This is the measure of your continuous blood pressure over a 24-hour period.

When the researchers examined the impact on blood pressure of different forms of exercise compared with people who did not exercise, they found that combined aerobic and resistance training was linked with an average drop of 6.18 mmHg in systolic blood pressure over 24 hours. (Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading and indicates the maximum pressure of your blood pushing against your artery walls when your heart beats.) Aerobic exercise on its own was linked to a 4.73 mmHg drop, while HIIT led to a 5.71 mmHg reduction.

There were also drops in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number in a blood pressure reading, which measures the pressure your blood exerts against your artery walls while the heart rests between beats). There was a 3.94 mmHg drop associated with combined training, 2.76 mmHg for aerobic exercise, and 4.64 mmHg for HIIT over 24 hours. Also worth noting: Pilates, a much lower-intensity form of exercise, also led to a 4.18 mmHg drop in diastolic blood pressure over 24 hours.

Why are these exercises so effective for lowering blood pressure?

It’s important to call out a few caveats from the study first. Researchers included trials with small numbers of participants, and there wasn’t much information on how long participants stuck with their workout routines. The types of exercise people did were also sometimes classified differently across studies, making it harder to parse everything. Still, doctors say there’s likely something here.

While there’s a lot that still needs to be explored, these forms of exercise tend to be a little more challenging, says Cheng-Han Chen, MD, interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA. “The intensity of exercise helps with blood pressure,” he says. “With moderate intensity exercise, getting the heart rate higher is training your heart to be more efficient and often training your blood pressure to be lower.”

Aerobic exercise teaches your blood vessels to widen and decreases blood vessel stiffness, says Jessica Hennessey, MD, PhD, cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Those two elements will lower your blood pressure. “It additionally has been shown to reduce resting sympathetic—fight or flight—tone, it can help your body to know to turn up the sympathetic tone during exercise, then reduce it during rest.” This ultimately lowers your resting blood pressure, too, she says.

Resistance training helps blood vessels widen in the muscles that you’re using and narrow in the areas that aren’t needed at that moment, supporting lower blood pressure, Dr. Hennessey says. And, because there are shorter recovery periods in HIIT, it teaches your nervous system and blood vessels to recover quickly, she adds.

What defines aerobic exercise?

While it’s easy to picture people jumping around in leotards, that’s not what aerobic exercise means here. Instead, the researchers focused on activities such as brisk walking, jogging, rowing, cycling, swimming, and elliptical training.

“Aerobic training is sustained, usually rhythmic, activity,” Dr. Hennessey says. This type of exercise focuses on oxidative metabolism, which is how the body uses oxygen to generate energy during exercise, and usually utilizes larger muscle groups. “This typically leads to a sustained increased heart rate and increases in oxygen consumption, which leads to enhanced stroke volume—the heart pumps more blood per beat—and more compliant blood vessels,” Dr. Hennessey says.

What’s the takeaway?

While some forms of exercise may have more of an immediate impact on your blood pressure, all workouts are helpful, Dr. Chen says. “The more exercise you get, the more you train those blood vessels, and your blood pressure over time will be lower,” he says.

Dr. Hennessey recommends creating a workout routine that you’ll actually follow. Just aim to do at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week, along with two sessions of strength training. “A more variable routine, which includes at least strength and aerobic exercise, is best for overall cardiovascular risk and blood pressure,” she says.

Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.