A new study out of the University of Saskatchewan has found that stretching is superior to brisk walking for reducing blood pressure in people with high blood pressure or who are at risk of developing elevated blood pressure levels.
Kinesiology professor and study co-author Dr Phil Chilibeck explains how they formulated their results in this first-ever study comparing stretching and walking.
The study came about by chance, he told Jim Mora, when comparing one group walking compared with another on a supplement.
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“We just gave our control group a stretching programme and then when we analysed our results we didn’t see the changes with blood pressure that we wanted to with either the nutritional supplement or the walking, but we were surprised that our control group was actually going down.”
That prompted him to go back to the literature, he says.
“I found a few studies that showed that when you stretch a muscle you also stretch the blood vessels that flow through the limb and it seems to have a positive effect to reduce the stiffness of those blood vessels.
“If you stretch them chronically over days and weeks you get a change in your blood vessels and they become less stiff, they become less resistant to blood flow and that’s going to reduce your blood pressure.”
His team then conducted a larger trial comparing walking with stretching.
“After eight weeks we found that the stretching was superior for reducing blood pressure. “
The people in the stretch programme were given 21 different stretches of the upper body and lower body doing all those stretches a couple of times each, holding the stretches for 30 seconds each.
But he thinks a few stretches of the larger muscle groups in the lower body would also be beneficial – for example the quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles.
“I think you could easily do that in ten to fifteen minutes and still get a benefit.”
Reasons for the benefit are threefold, he says.
“The cells turn over to make the blood vessels less stiff and more compliant, but there are other mechanisms too when you stretch a muscle it might promote the release of some metabolites in the walls of you blood vessels and it makes the blood vessels dilate so it makes the blood vessels less resistant to blood flow.”
There is a nervous system component too, Prof Chilibeck says.
“When you’ve done a stretching routine it seems to activate the part of your nervous system that makes you more relaxed.”
He also believes people with very high blood pressure would benefit – not just those with moderately elevated levels.
“I think the worse you are the more benefit you are going to end up seeing. I think this would be very encouraging for someone that has very high blood pressure.”
