Concept2 Forum

Monty Thrupp wrote: ↑

June 12th, 2024, 3:07 pm

Thank you all for your advice. It is greatly appreciated. Sadly my BP issues have been pretty lousy this past month meaning two trips to A&E which was bloody awful. I am about to start much stronger meds tomorrow. It would appear that chronic anxiety/alarm over a long period can add substantially to these issues. A medic recommended a mild beta blocker in conjunction to help control it which i shall also start taking. It is quite sobering to realise that you're not that bloke in his 30's anymore who didnt really give a monkeys about his health but are slap bang in middle age and all that entails. I shall be stepping up the rowing now to get more of a sweat on and doing some kettlebells as well. Commitement and diligence is the only way forward now

Sorry to hear this, and good luck with the fightback

Monty Thrupp wrote: ↑

June 12th, 2024, 3:07 pm

Thank you all for your advice. It is greatly appreciated. Sadly my BP issues have been pretty lousy this past month meaning two trips to A&E which was bloody awful. I am about to start much stronger meds tomorrow. It would appear that chronic anxiety/alarm over a long period can add substantially to these issues. A medic recommended a mild beta blocker in conjunction to help control it which i shall also start taking. It is quite sobering to realise that you're not that bloke in his 30's anymore who didnt really give a monkeys about his health but are slap bang in middle age and all that entails. I shall be stepping up the rowing now to get more of a sweat on and doing some kettlebells as well. Commitement and diligence is the only way forward now

Obviously only share what you are comfortable with, but if the A&E visits were required and not panic attacks, you should be seeking medical help rather than forum comments. I note from your initial post that you were hoping to lose weight, how is that going? HIgher intensity exercise is not risk free but for most can reduce risk in the medium term, but that is a generalisation that might not apply to you. Many of us are aware of overly cautious medical professionals and as a bunch ergers have generally decided that the risks are worth the rewards. BUt this depends on the facts for the individual and we know little about you. I am not a medical professional, but AIUI High BP is primarily an issue due to increased risks of coronary and strokes. Both are relatively common and risking them should not be done lightly. I strongly recommend that you seek qualified advice from someone who ideally has a positive view of sport and is not paralysed by potential liability concerns.

I wish you all the best and hope you find an approach that balances properly assessed risks with a longer term plan to improve your health.

About 3 months ago your doctor prescribed aerobic conditioning.

The lead time to see gains for aerobic gains is typically many months, sometime you get a breakthrough after a year or more of training. (This is really different than anaerobic strength gains like sprinting or weight lifting where you can see huge results in 6 weeks.) Growing aerobic base takes time.

Not a doctor, but strongly recommend continuing or increasing duration of your low effort rowing and your walking. If you use a heart rate monitor strap you will eventually start to see lower split times at the same heartrate and perceived effort level. Note your measurements will get wonky around changes in medication. Once you see aerobic improvement the improvement stays for a while unlike anaerobic gain which go away quickly if you stop working out. Aerobic conditioning also keeps getting better over time as you continue to work out vs anaerobic where plateaus are common.

This all in addition to diet, weight control, etc.

Good Luck.

Interestingly Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) is converted in the mouth by bacteria to Nitrites which then lower blood pressure when swallowed.
Do it only in small quantities since KNO3 is also carcinogenic but is an approved food additive in small quantities.
To obtain the desired effect you have to swish it (in water solution) around in your mouth for some time to let the bacteria do their work.

Potassium Nitrate has the advantage of being an inexpensive chemical. Similar effects are reported from a combination of L-Arginine (fast short term effect) + L-Citrulline (slower longer term effect). The most expensive, but still affordable, solution is beet root powder.

I am using L-Arginine/L-Citrulline or beet root powder whenever I am doing a time trial especially 2K to reduce the risk of a heart attack.
Links:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4008816/
"It is recognized that nitrate may also be beneficial for cardiovascular health in the general population due to reductions in blood pressure "

Inorganic nitrates and blood pressure:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10 ... 110.153536

I don't think it is advisable to go for intense sessions during an elevated blood pressure. It could result in a much more extreme scenario. It would rather be good if you take some rest and calm yourself before going on to any workout in such situations.

It is probably worth adding some isometric exercise to your routine as well. A recent large study found that isometric exercise was the most effective exercise modality (for the people in the study, at least) at reducing blood pressure.

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/ ... d-pressure

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/20/1317

With all respect due, Sir, may I give you my non-medical thoughts about the issues you face. Be doggone careful of high intensity, interval training of any sort. Have your physician do at least a supervised exercise stress echogram, preferably with contrast. It will monitor in real-time your blood pressure values, and, where well carried out, it will provide you with HR, HRV, Respiratory rate, among others. Most importantly, though, it will alert your medical professional, about YOUR unique cardiovascular integrity or lack thereof with advice as to how safely to proceed with exercising in the presence of high blood pressure.

You DO NOT WANT to risk more serious outcomes from what may even seem like low intensity work, let alone high intensity work, given already known high blood pressure readings. That is especially true if you show persistent values Stage II or Stage III under current guidelines. Briefly put, as another poster here has said, and I will endorse wholeheartedly, get a doggone, full scale medical eval to rule out any pre-existing conditions that are so far "silent," i.e., not known via standard assessment procedures.

As my screen name notes, I am an aging-athlete, 87 years of age with almost 50 years of high intensity exercise. While I am NOT a medical doctor and I'm NOT offering you medical advice, I am offering you an informed consumer commentary, to wit: I had to have an appendectomy and the required full chest CT Scan with contrast alerted my primary care doc that I had an aneurysmal area in my proximal ascending aorta the value of which was close enough to requiring surgery if I'd've continued with my HIIT training. I've a long-standing history of high blood pressure secondary to high intensity work in the criminal justice system as LEO and court appointed expert in death penalty cases. Medication was only partially successful in restoring some normalcy to those readings.

My current status is this: with more advanced metrics as I've described, with acquiring on a daily basis the metrics from my wearable devices, major changes in life-style activity, e.g., I've ceased ALL alcohol intake, adopted the sleep protocol from the US Dept of Defense for service members, ceased ALL HIIT resistance training, undertaken systematic "Mindfulness" training and practice (as adopted by USMC) pre-sleep, and post awakening. Central to my mind/heart training is that I continue to re"mind" and re"heart" myself to have the serenity of accepting the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.And my new C2 Model D should arrive end of this week. If it's good enough for the US Navy "Blue Angels" aerobatic team, I can't go wrong.

May I say, get thee to the medical folks you trust and who know you, care about and for you, and get the best data you can, especially about the blood pressure values associated with the central cardiovascular system. There are non-invasive devices that will allow those central metrics to be assessed. Your medical doc will be the best resource for that information.

I congratulate you for your serious interest in taking care of yourself and I think posting here was a good first step. You can do this!!

Anthony

Do i need to do more intense work to make the positive change in my BP i pray for?

No. High BP is caused by harder and blocked arteries. Check your cholesterol levels. You'll have to take one or two types of product, lifelong, maybe olmesartan medoxomil and amlodipina, or whatever they're called in your area. Docs know the doses needed. Here in Italy our hospitals have a blood pressure unit.

On the other hand, I had three coronary bypasses done in Jan this year. Coronaries let the heart deliver blood to the heart muscle itself, so must work well. I've also twice cleared out a blocked carotid artery, since the brain too lives on blood. BP now back to 1970 levels.

Started sculling in 1950 on the Thames, in a dinghy. Now I'm pulling everyday WODs at around 120W. Don't bother with hard work, intensity and such like. Just learn to row with good technique, which alone is hard enough even at rate 20, but doesn't cause damage if we keep our hands flat, straight and parallel with the chain. I work (at 84) at 300 to 350N seen in ergdata (just over 30kg chain force, now 6', 75kg naked). It's the legs that do the work, all the rest relaxed. See the C2 technique page.

High intensity work is done when closing in on 2k race day. Not needed otherwise.