Blood Pressure stuff

Since I come from a family of high blood pressure folks and my mother died of a massive stroke at 65, this ole thing called "high blood pressure" has always been of interest to me. Since I have been in some kind of athletics starting at the age of 10, exercise has always helped me condition my system to have normal normal blood pressure. Since normal is considered 120/80 I have always been able to stay very close to those numbers; however, I have found that since the aging process has set in a little, my blood pressure will many times measure above that(I just took it before writing this and it was 127/77). Not bad but still a tad bit above the perfect reading. I have also learned that taking your blood pressure should be done at least three times to get an accurate reading. It is also said that if your blood pressure reads high on the first try but then goes down you really do not have high blood pressure. Another extreme example is when I go to the dentist and they take my blood pressure it is way higher than normal. Duh!! With all of the pain I have had while in the dentist chair is it any wonder that my blood pressure shoots to the moon? Now to my point! I just read an interesting article by a medical doctor that recommends ways to prevent and control your blood pressure without taking a bunch of drugs, fact is you will not have to take any if you follow this advice. 1. If you are overweight, weight reduction can bring down pressure by five points. 2. Salt restriction lowers pressure for most. Salt restriction isn't just not adding salt in cooking or at the table. Only 10 percent of our daily salt intake comes in those ways. Most of our salt is found in foods to which salt has been added before it arrives in our homes. Reducing salt intake lowers pressure by five points. 3. Stick to a diet consisting mostly of fruits, vegetables, grains and low-fat dairy products. That kind of diet reduces pressure by about six points. 4. Exercise(see I knew we would get to this one sooner or later) is another effective way to get pressure down. The goal is 30 minutes(where have you heard this before?) on most days of the week. 5. Finally, increasing your daily potassium can take four points off blood pressure. Foods rich in potassium include baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans(white, lima, and kidney), prunes, squash, bananas, spinach, Brussels sprouts, oranges, and orange juice, and milk. Doing all of the above should put your pressure in normal ranges without medicines(and you can stick your tongue out at the drug companies, and increase your savings account all at the same time).

Go for it, the formula is simple,

Mike Greer

Live Longer #26, Exercises to Avoid

During the week I received a phone call from one of our faithful readers, Mr. Steve Moffett, and he suggested that our growing list of "how to live to be a healthy 100" needed number 26 added to it. His point concerns the practice of diversifying your friendships and interests. He mentioned that in his hobby of aviation he has met many different type of people ranging in ages from 19 to 80 that have given him new insights to life and made his life more enjoyable. When I put some thought to this point it took me through my many interests(profession, athletics, writing, business, hobbies, etc.) and I found the same feeling. For example I have people ask me all the time why do I take the time to bowl, since I am a triathlete and they have no similarities. Well that is just the point, since all of the people I bowl with are not triathletes I have the opportunity to meet some different type people with varied professional backgrounds and philosophies towards life that I don't always meet amongst my triathlete friends. This point will also fall under the heading of "balancing" your life and keeps you out of the ruts of life that create boredom and complacenty. The more I think about it the more I get enthused about it, thanks Steve, keep 'em coming!!

Here are some exercises "not" to do, or you may suffer more hurt than gain. They have proven over the years to be more inefficient, ineffective and unsafe for your body: 1. Sitting on a weight bench lifting weights with the quads being used almost exclusively. This causes an over use of the quads and over development. Making them subject to injury. Squats and lunges are much better. 2. Sitting on the weight bench and pulling weight down BEHIND your neck as opposed to pulling down the same weights in FRONT of your body. This can do damage to the rotator cuffs and should muscles. The remedy to this is just to simply pull the same weight down to your chest. 3. Setting your cardio workout too slow or in the same zone each time you exercise. A variable heart rate with some anaerobic and aerobic heart rate is better for you. 4. Set ups with feet locked in front of you, either with bent or straight legs. This is hard on the lower back. While this works your mid-section very, well it is better to sit on a large medicine ball with feet flat on the floor and then do the touch elbows to knees, at least 15 times. 5. Nix the inner/outer thigh machines since they put you in an un-natural position. Instead hold a weighted medicine ball and do lunges & squats(10-15 repetitions. 6. Waist twists and side bends do not work and probably do more bulking up of the middle than anything you do. Simply stand up straight, tighten abs and rotate back and forth 10-15 times. 7. Deep squats will cause knee pain and injury. Use the above mentioned quad exercises with no squats. 8. Touching toes(especially if you are not warmed up) is not a good exercise. It strains your lower back and pulls the upper leg muscles in a stressful way. If you want to touch your toes then do it in a gradual way, i.e. go down to knee first, then progress by 2 inches each time until you gradually reach your toes. DO NOT BOUNCE! Another good way to touch you toes is to cross your legs and then gradually go down. This method will prevent you from pulling any muscles and will accomplish what you expect out of this exercise. 9. Do not do high repetitions with lighter weights, i.e. dumbbell curl with 10 lb. weight 100 times. It better to do 10-15 reps with 20-25 lb. dumbbells. High repetitions tend to create fatigue in the muscles that can result in injury. We are not looking for injury here or even cosmetics, but simply increasing your body strength. Also, these exercises should be done 2-3 times per week along with your cardio work out or on alternate days that you do not do cardio.

Now the New Year is here, let's get it done!!

Mike Greer