How Blood Pressure Drugs May Affect Exercise

If you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you probably know exercise is a key recommendation for lowering and controlling it. You also may have been prescribed medication to help. So, how might that medication affect your exercise routine?

Exercise and high blood pressure medication can both be highly effective for lowering blood pressure and keeping it at a healthy level. Exercising as little as 30 minutes on most days of the week, or 150 minutes total each week, can maintain healthy blood pressure and even help lower high blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In fact, this level of exercise can lower blood pressure readings by 5 to 8 points (noted as millimeters of mercury, or mm Hg) per week, which is considered a significant amount.

Before you exercise on your own with high blood pressure, however, most experts recommend discussing your plans with your doctor, just to make sure they are safe.

"Clearly a large component and big added effect of exercise is that it will ideally lower blood pressure in those [who] have high blood pressure," says B. J. Hicks, MD, a vascular neurologist and co-director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

"However, that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, depending on age and where their activity level can be, so that needs to be individualized with the doctor and patient."

Your blood pressure can also affect the types of exercises you might want to do, says Susan Besser, MD, a primary care provider specializing in family medicine with Mercy Personal Physicians in Overlea, Maryland. "I recommend more cardio to strengthen your heart and circulatory system, and less weight lifting, which can actually increase your blood pressure," she says.

Though blood pressure medications are often seen as a secondary treatment after lifestyle changes, there's no question they can be effective.

A number of different blood pressure medications are available, including calcium channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), thiazide diuretics and more, per the Mayo Clinic.

Blood pressure management often requires some combination of these meds, discovered through a trial-and-error process with your prescribing doctor, to determine the right regimen for each person.

While both exercise and medications are important tools for regulating blood pressure, is it possible they could come into conflict with each other?

Medical experts agree this typically isn't the case, and most people can exercise normally when taking blood pressure medications. However, there may be some potential outcomes to be aware of.

"A lot of times, you don't know what will impact you until you start the medication and start to feel something," Dr. Hicks says. "Common things people notice is perhaps the dose is a bit too strong, and once you take the medication and add on a strenuous workout, the medication might make the blood pressure or pulse drop too low, and you might experience light-headedness and a generalized feeling of weakness. That is rare but can occur as you age, so it's something our elderly patients need to be aware of."

Considering the potential reactions, it's best to approach exercise on blood pressure medications with some caution. Always start with a consultation with your doctor before deciding on a new exercise routine.

"There is nothing to suggest you cannot exercise on blood pressure medications," Dr. Hicks says. "However, this leads back to those discussions with the prescribing doctor or provider to make sure they are understanding what you like to do, what is your routine and will this medication interfere with that at all."