Handgrip Exercises for Lower Blood Pressure

handgrip exercises for lower blood pressureYou probably know that regular aerobic/cardio exercise is important for reducing high blood pressure.

Aerobic exercise is activity that gets your heart and lungs working harder, and it can be anything from walking to swimming, to raking up leaves or cleaning the floor.

But did you know you can also lower your blood pressure by just sitting around squeezing something for quarter of an hour a day?

Doing hand-grip exercises for lower blood pressure could be the easiest way to lower your blood pressure that’s been discovered….

Isometric hand-grip exercise

Isometric exercise involves using muscular force, but without movement, and some forms of isometric exercise have been found to have surprising benefits for blood pressure.

The main type studied is isometric hand-grip exercise which basically involves gripping something with your hand, to contract the muscles in your arm, but without moving your arm itself.

This might not sound like much but it turns out that doing it regularly can lower your blood pressure over time.

This was discovered by accident in the 1970s, by a scientist working with US fighter pilots to help them deal with high G-forces when flying. He developed a device that they could squeeze with their hands, to temporarily raise their blood pressure just enough to stop them blacking out.

It worked, but then they found it had a great side-effect – it had lowered the blood pressure of those pilots who’d had high blood pressure (and who were doing this hand-squeezing exercise regularly).

*a range of devices for doing hand-grip exercises for lower blood pressure are outlined below*

 

Benefits of hand-grip exercises for lower blood pressure

Many studies have been done since then on the effects of doing isometric handgrip exercises for lower blood pressure, and a report published by the American Heart Association in April 2013 concluded that such handgrip exercises produce “significant reductions” in blood pressure.

In fact, recent reviews of isometric hand-grip exercise studies show drops in blood pressure of 10%. It’s not completely clear to medical researchers how hand-grip exercises lower blood pressure, but research suggests it works in at least three ways:

  • it balances your autonomic nervous system – which regulates all the things you don’t have to think about, including blood pressure
  • it improves the condition of your blood vessels, repairing any damage
  • it encourages your blood vessels to dilate, allowing freer blood flow

Isometric hand-grip exercise affects blood pressure in a different way to aerobic exercise so it’s worth doing, even if you’re getting plenty aerobic exercise. Also, this hand-grip exercise on its own has been shown to be effective at lowering blood pressure, so if you’re not able to be more active, it’s a great way to improve your blood pressure.

A big advantage of doing hand-grip exercises for lower blood pressure is that it doesn’t take a lot of time. You only need to do it for about 12 minutes a day, several times a week, and you can do it pretty much anywhere – standing up, sitting down, watching TV….so it’s a small commitment for potentially impressive results.

Mind you, the effects take some time to manifest – it may take a month or two. So you need to keep doing it – you’ll continue to feel the benefits as long as you continue to do the exercises.

 

How to do hand-grip exercises for lower blood pressure

Isometric hand-grip exercises for lower blood pressure are pretty straightforward. They basically consist of squeezing or gripping something for 2 minutes at a time, at about a third of your full grip-strength, and doing this several times.

Click here for detailed instructions on how to do hand grip exercises to lower blood pressure

You need something to squeeze though, and there are a range of different devices that you can use for doing handgrip exercises, ranging from the very cheap to the very expensive.

 

Hand-grip devices for lowering blood pressure

handgrippersYou can do hand-grip exercises using ordinary hand-grip strengtheners. These are usually in the form of spring-loaded handles which you have to squeeze together. You can also use a squeezy de-stress-ball, or any rubber ball really.

There are now also devices which show your grip strength as you’re gripping so, as long as you keep an eye on it, you can make sure to grip the right amount. (Just grip with your full strength first and record the figure show, divide this amount by three, then when gripping, aim to be gripping that amount.)

Here’s a sample of devices you can buy online which you can use to do IHG exercises.

Easy handgrippers – reviews say they ones are quite easy to squeeze so these could be good to start with or if you don’t have particularly strong hands. Remember, you only need to be gripping something at a third of your full strength so you don’t want a device that’s too difficult for you to squeeze.

 

Safety of hand-grip exercises

Hand-grip exercises are safe to do for pretty much everyone. The main exceptions are if you have problems with your hands, like arthritis, or carpal tunnel syndrome, in which case you might find it too difficult to squeeze effectively.

The other exception may be if you have very high blood pressure. This is because hand-grip exercise works to reduce your resting blood pressure – i.e., your blood pressure when you’re not exercising. However, you often get a temporary spike in blood pressure whilst doing the exercises. This usually resolves itself within a few minutes, but if your blood pressure is very high, this may be a little risky.

The American Heart Association recommends that “isometric exercise should be avoided among individuals with BP levels >180/110 mm Hg until their hypertension is better controlled.” (Hypertension journal, April 2013) If you have any concerns regarding the suitability of hand-grip exercises for yourself, speak to your doctor before starting.

 

Will doing hand-grip exercises be enough to lower my blood pressure?

Hand grip exercises don’t seem to work for everyone to lower blood pressure, but research suggests they do work for most. So there’s a good chance that doing hand-grip exercises regularly can make a difference to your blood pressure. However, even so, they may or may not lower it enough. Everyone’s different, so give it a try.

However, if you find you need to get your blood pressure down further, don’t worry – there are a lot of other things you can do, such as eating more or less of certain things, being more active, practising relaxation techniques and getting a handle on any stress.

In fact, for lowering blood pressure naturally, it’s generally most effective to take a broad approach, so that everything works together to contribute to getting your body, and your blood pressure, into a healthier balance.

So where do you start? Well, to make it simple, we’ve put together an easy-to-follow guide:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

As the title suggests, the guide is laid out into nine clear steps. Each step deals with different things you can do to lower your blood pressure:

  • the foods and drinks you need to get more of or avoid
  • how you can be more active in your day to day life without having to get into lycra and go to the gym (unless you want to, of course)
  • how to handle your stress levels and enjoy a more relaxing life

lower your blood pressure naturallyEach step sets out straightforward aims and action plans so that you know what to do and how to do it. And you can take each step at whatever pace suits you – making simple changes to your diet and daily routine as you go.

Perhaps most importantly, the guide shows you how to incorporate these changes into your life simply and easily – and enjoyably!

Lowering your blood pressure naturally doesn’t have to be difficult. And it’s difficult not to enjoy feeling healthier and happier and more relaxed!

 

How to Do Hand Grip Exercises to Lower Blood Pressure

how to do hand grip exercises to lower blood pressureThere are several studies which now show that doing simple hand grip exercises can lower blood pressure. However, doing any old hand gripping exercises won’t necessarily work. You have to do them in a certain way for them to be effective in lower your blood pressure. So the question is how to do hand grip exercises to lower blood pressure?

Hand grip exercise devices

To do handgrip devices, you’ll need something to grip.

There are various options. Most simply, you can use basic handgripper devices. These devices are designed to be used for building hand grip strength. However, you can use them to do blood pressure-lowering hand grip exercises instead. You can even just use a squeezable ball.

One thing that’s quite crucial about doing handgrip exercises for lowering blood pressure is that you’re gripping the correct amount – one third of your full grip strength. There’s more details on this below. This means that it’s very useful to have a device that shows your grip strength so you can make sure you’re gripping the right amount.

Devices that do this vary dramatically in price. There are simple electronic handgrip devices which measure your grip strength, and there’s one sophisticated model which give you direct guidance on how much and how long to grip (this one costs a lot more!).

I’ve reviewed and compared these different devices in another post. So click here if you want more information and links to order online: handgrip exercises for lower blood pressure (scroll down a bit to see the device reviews)

So find yourself something to grip and then follow the guidelines below to get started.

 

How to do hand grip exercises to lower blood pressure

1. Establish the correct grip strength

The main thing to keep in mind when doing hand grip exercises to lower blood pressure is that you don’t need to grip at your full strength. In fact gripping something too tightly for too long is just going to raise your blood pressure more.

So make sure whatever device you’re using isn’t too hard for you to squeeze. You don’t want to be forcing yourself into gripping too tightly. If you’re using handgrippers, then go for low- or moderate-resistance models.

You’re aiming to be gripping your device at about 30% of your full strength.

A good way to gauge this is to grip your device as hard as you can briefly, then try gripping it again at about a third of this intensity. This is the trickiest part of doing hand grip exercises to lower blood pressure. For this reason, using a handgripper that shows your grip strength as you’re doing can be very useful.

Check your grip strength each time

You can do this grip check each time you start a set of hand grip exercises. Your grip-strength might vary slightly from day to day, or even through the day, depending on your energy levels or how you’ve been using your hands or various other factors. So establish this 30% grip at the start of each session. Then pay close attention throughout to make sure you’re keeping that level of grip.

If you decide to do the exercises with alternating hands (see below), then you need to gauge the 30% grip strength separately for each hand.

 

2. Follow the recommended schedule of grip and rest periods

Now you can get on with doing the exercises. The American Heart Association recommend following the protocols of the published studies on handgrip exercises for lower blood pressure.

The format used in most handgrip exercise studies is as follows:

  • squeeze/grip your chosen object for 2 minutes at a time, at about a third of your full strength
  • rest for a few minutes (most studies used 1 or 3 minute rest periods)
  • repeat this cycle 3 more times (for a total of 4 cycles)  – this works out to about 15 minutes for one session
  • do a session like this 3 or 4 days a week.

Some research suggests alternating hands for each cycle is best. This would mean 2 cycles per hand in total. (In other words, grip for 2 minutes with your right hand, rest, grip for 2 minutes with your left hand, rest, repeat).

Remember to maintain a constant grip strength during the squeezing period. It’s easy to start squeezing harder without realizing or for your grip to soften a bit over time, so try to keep an eye on this.

Build up to it gradually if necessary

At first it can be quite hard to maintain a grip for two minutes even at just a third of your full strength. You can work up to it gradually though. For example, start by gripping for periods of, say, 10 seconds at a time and do a session with these short grip periods. Increase the gripping period each day until you can do it for the full two minutes each time.

 

3. Keep doing them!

You need to do these hand grip exercises regularly to see any blood pressure-lowering effects. Do them at least 3 – 5 times a week.

Even them, it can take a couple of months of regularly doing the hand grip exercises to see a reduction in your blood pressure. And the benefits only continue as long as you are doing the hand grip exercises. So once you’ve started, don’t stop!

 

Are hand grip exercises safe for me to do?

For most people hand grip exercises are perfectly safe. There are a couple of exceptions though.

Firstly, if you have any trouble using your hands then hand grip exercises might be too difficult for you. For example, if you have arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome then you might struggle.

Secondly, if your blood pressure is very high then hand grip exercises may not be a good idea. This is because hand grip exercises work to reduce your resting blood pressure – i.e., your blood pressure when you’re not exercising. However, while you are doing hand grip exercises you often get a temporary spike in blood pressure. Once you’re finished the exercises this spike usually disappears within a few minutes. But if your blood pressure is very high this may be a little risky.

The American Heart Association recommends that “isometric exercise should be avoided among individuals with BP levels >180/110 mm Hg until their hypertension is better controlled.” (Hypertension journal, April 2013.) Be sure to speak to your doctor before doing hand grip exercises if you’re not sure if they’re safe for you.

Can hand grip exercises lower my blood pressure enough?

Studies suggest that if you do hand grip exercises accurately, then doing them regularly can make a noticeable difference to your blood pressure. However, they may not lower your blood pressure enough, depending on how your body responds and on how high your blood pressure is in the first place.

Lowering your blood pressure naturally to a significant degree usually depends on taking a broad approach. So, as well as doing hand grip exercises, you can use other methods to reduce your blood pressure. You can adjust some of the things you eat and drink. You can practise techniques to relax more. And you can (literally) take steps to be more active.

You’ll find a thorough overview of all the ways you can lower your blood pressure naturally in our book: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

lower your blood pressure naturallySince there are so many things you can do to lower your blood pressure naturally, the problem often is knowing where to start.

To keep it simple, our guide outlines the various options in a straightforward way, and walks you through them in an easy-to-follow step-by-step manner.

Each step deals with different things you can do to lower your blood pressure:

  • the foods and drinks to get more of or avoid
  • how you can be more active in your day to day life
  • how to handle your stress levels and enjoy a more relaxing life

The guide also puts a strong emphasis on how to introduce beneficial changes to your life in a way that works for you. Then you can lower your blood pressure naturally and enjoy the process 🙂

How to do hand grip exercises to lower blood pressure: key references:

Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure – A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association, Hypertension, April 2013

https://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/61/6/1360.long