Research Reveals Stretching May Help Lower High Blood Pressure

After eight weeks, the stretching group had a greater reduction in blood pressure than the walking group. The researchers concluded that stretching your muscles can also make the blood vessels—including arteries—that feed them less stiff. Arterial stiffness can cause resistance to blood flow, which in turn can lead to high blood pressure. By reducing the stiffness, you reduce the resistance, which results in lowered blood pressure.

This doesn't mean you should hang up your walking shoes. While those in the walking group didn’t see significant reductions in blood pressure, they did lose more body fat, which also may improve health outcomes.

To get the benefits of both, the researchers recommend that walkers incorporate stretching into their routine, and vice versa. And although the study had participants doing stretches over a 30-minute period, they say a shorter stretching session that emphasizes the larger muscle groups in the legs can be just as effective.

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