Weight Loss and Stabilizing Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, and Cholesterol: Gentle Exercise Recommendations for People with These Conditions

Which Exercises Are Suitable for You?

While exercise can improve physical health, individuals with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia (the "three highs") must choose suitable exercise methods due to their unique physical condition. Consistent, regular, and prolonged low-intensity exercise can effectively help control blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipids. At the same time, high-intensity exercise should be avoided to prevent significant fluctuations in blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipids. You might think exercise should be unrestricted, so why is there an ideal or unideal approach? Because exercise can potentially damage joints, ligaments, and muscles. Therefore, flexibility and stretching exercises before exercise help prevent sports injuries and improve athletic performance. Strength training exercises, which involve muscle contraction under load, can help increase muscle strength and endurance. Aerobic exercise trains cardiovascular function, increasing blood flow and tissue oxygenation.

Therefore, a truly ideal exercise routine should combine flexibility, strength training, and aerobic exercise simultaneously or sequentially. Safety is paramount: first, your physical safety; second, the safety of the exercise environment; and third, the type of exercise you choose should be safe for you. Which exercises are suitable for patients with hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia?

(1) Jogging – Gentle Cardiovascular Exercise Jogging is known as gentle cardiovascular exercise, as it provides excellent stimulation to the heart and blood vessels. Sweating during running is very beneficial to health; it is not the same as sweating in a sauna or due to high ambient temperature. Active sweating is valuable; sweating from running with a faster heartbeat is meaningful because diabetic patients tend to have an acidic constitution. Active sweating can make the internal environment more alkaline, thereby reducing the incidence of inflammation and playing a good role in wound healing and skin repair. When doing jogging, the following should be noted: Before jogging, walk 2-3 km from slow to fast; only if there are no adverse reactions should jogging be allowed; the jogging time should be gradually increased, but generally not exceeding half an hour each time; a relaxed mind is required when running, and the stride is very important; avoid early morning and evening; the heart rate during exercise should be 60%-70% of one's maximum heart rate, approximately equivalent to 50%-60% of maximum oxygen uptake. Generally, a heart rate of 140 beats/min is recommended for those aged 40, 130 beats/min for those aged 50, and below 120 beats/min for those over 60. Those with complications should generally avoid jogging.

(2) Brisk Walking – Simple, Easy, and Effective
Brisk walking, also known as brisk walking or fast walking, involves more exercise than regular walking but less than jogging. When brisk walking, pay attention to the following:

① Control your speed. If you cannot adapt to the intensity of brisk walking for half an hour continuously, start with a lower intensity. A San Diego race walking coach says, "Don't worry about the intensity being too low; research shows that walking for ten minutes a day is beneficial to health." Therefore, you can walk three times a day for ten minutes each time until you can walk continuously for thirty minutes.

② Slow down your pace. If you don't have a habit of exercising before, it's difficult to adapt to high-intensity exercise in a short period. Try walking for an extra half hour each day to accumulate exercise by increasing the walking distance. Another good method is to use different intensities in one workout session, such as brisk walking for 10 minutes followed by slow walking for 10 minutes. This is very beneficial for improving cardiopulmonary function.

③ Challenge the difficulty. After persisting in exercising for a period of time, if you want to increase the difficulty, in addition to increasing your walking speed, you can also choose to climb hills or increase the incline of the treadmill. This not only helps stabilize blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipids, but also helps you shape your hip curve. However, diabetic patients with joint diseases such as knee and ankle joints need to be cautious when choosing this method. In addition, it is contraindicated for those with severe conditions and complications. The specific method of brisk walking can be adapted to local conditions, but it must be done gradually, and there should be no discomfort reaction during each activity. If you feel that you have extra energy, you can increase the amount of exercise by extending the distance or increasing the pace, or you can alternate between walking and running.

(3) Ten exercises are not as good as one stroll. Walking is a relatively leisurely exercise. The saying "ten exercises are not as good as one stroll" emphasizes a natural way of exercising. This type of exercise is most beneficial for patients with hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia because walking does not cause a rise in blood pressure due to excessive fatigue. Furthermore, it allows for timely assistance in case of rapid heartbeat or other discomfort. Walking while massaging the abdomen is suitable for patients with indigestion and chronic gastrointestinal diseases. Studies show that exercise can reduce the conversion rate of glucose into diabetes by up to 33%, and the exercise requirement is 30 minutes of walking per day, which is not very intense. Therefore, walking is not only beneficial for hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, but also has certain benefits for other diseases. Walking is generally done in the morning, evening, or before bedtime, for 15-50 minutes, 1-2 times a day, with the speed depending on individual physical condition.

(4) Simplified Tai Chi Practicing Tai Chi helps relieve stress, improve balance, and enhance physical flexibility. Tai Chi Chuan's principles are a dialectical doctrine encompassing movement and stillness, emptiness and fullness, opening and closing, inhalation and exhalation, hardness and softness, offense and defense, the unexpected and the orthodox, up and down, inside and outside, left and right, advance and retreat, and the contradictions of Yin and Yang. The internal three-harmony method in Tai Chi Chuan—"harmony between mind and intention, harmony between intention and Qi, harmony between Qi and strength"—integrates the coordinated work between various organ systems of the human body, exercising and strengthening the functions of all organs and having a positive impact on one's mental and psychological well-being. The simple, gentle, and fluid movements of traditional Tai Chi Chuan make it one of the best choices for general fitness, especially for middle-aged and elderly people. Tai Chi Chuan has special health benefits and can improve the function of the autonomic nervous system.

The tranquil state achieved during Tai Chi Chuan practice can significantly reduce the excitability of the sympathetic nervous system, thus helping to lower blood pressure. The coordinated movements of Tai Chi Chuan can improve blood circulation, improve blood supply to the heart and brain, reduce peripheral resistance, thereby lowering blood pressure. Simultaneously, it increases lung capacity, enhances pulmonary ventilation and gas exchange, and the improved cardiopulmonary function is also beneficial for the recovery of patients with hypertension. Studies have shown that many patients can benefit from practicing Tai Chi. Slow and rhythmic Tai Chi practice, by stimulating internal organs and improving flexibility and balance, demonstrates significant clinical effects, reducing tremors, enhancing body control, and improving general daily living and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, consistent Tai Chi practice can significantly lower blood sugar.

It's important to note that the most crucial aspect of Tai Chi practice is relaxation. Muscle relaxation reflexively causes blood vessels to relax, thus lowering blood pressure. Additionally, Tai Chi practice should guide movements with intention, maintaining a high level of concentration and mental tranquility. This helps eliminate symptoms such as tension, agitation, and nervous sensitivity in hypertensive patients. Patients with high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol can attend a Tai Chi training class twice a week for one hour each time, and then practice at home three times a week for 20 minutes each time, which can effectively lower blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol.