A recent study has shown that taking four short walks a day to lower your blood pressure may be more beneficial than one long walk.
Indiana University researchers have reported in the September issue of the Journal of Hypertension, a study that compared the effects of four 10-minute walks to one 40-minute walk which revealed that blood pressure was reduced in 20 people with prehypertension.Prehypertension, is usually a situation in which blood pressure ranges from 120-139 mm Hg over 80-89 mm Hg, an elevated blood pressure level that will usually progress to high blood pressure. High blood pressure is in turn associated with heart failure, heart attack, kidney failure, stroke and blindness.
The study revealed that short walks and long walk decreased the participants' blood pressure by the same amount. However the effect lasted for 11 hours after the short walks, while it was only seven hours after the long walk.
Janet Wallace, professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the Indiana University School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said, "We had no idea the short bouts would be better. Most studies found in the literature report the long, continuous session as more effective for many variables."
These findings are expected to especially motivate people who cannot seem to fit long bouts of activity in their schedule.
Wallace said, "The biggest problem for most people is that they don't have time. You might think, 'I don't have the time to go to the gym or work out for 40 minutes, but I might have the time to do 10 minutes here, 10 minutes here and another 10 minutes here.' Four 10-minute walks would be ideal."
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Source-Medindia
NLA
