I recently took my blood pressure at a machine in front of the pharmacy at my local grocery store.
I took it the first time and it was 150/60. I took it a few more times thinking that that couldn’t be correct and it went down to 137/57 on my third test. I was shocked at the high systolic and the low diastolic reading.
I have a resting heart rate of about 45 bpm and am a 31 year old male. I exercise a lot as I’m sure we all do on this forum.
I am wondering if endurance athletes or people with “athletic hearts” (as opposed to enlarged hearts) can have high systolic with a low diastolic blood pressure.
I plan to ask my doctor about it as I have a physical coming up but just wondering if any other endurance athletes have experienced this?
Apologies if there is already a thread on this or if this is not the correct place.
Thanks in advance for any reply!
I’m 130/70 with a resting pulse of 40. Doctors who don’t understand athletes see this and caution be about being “borderline hypertensive” due to the 130. Those that understand endurance athletes have told me this is perfectly normal in highly trained persons (the high systolic is due to fewer, more powerful contractions).
It’s just like considering a bodybuilder with 3% body fat “obese” because he has a high BMI. Reason #238 to use a doctor that understands athletes.
I’m not sure how directly this relates to your blood pressure, but I think we do develop a higher level of red blood cell count. I regularly donate blood off season ( O-neg ), and they have to do the finger-prick test to check for anemia. Las time I donated, the tech told me I had much higher than normal cell to plasma ratio (54% vs 40% normal in males).
Call me naive, but I didn’t realize that red blood was the transporter of oxygen through the body, so it makes sense that trained endurance athletes would produce higher counts. Again, I’m not sure if that has any effect on blood pressure, but it seems possible. Maybe someone with a medical background can shine some more light?
There are about 732,304 reasons why this value may be what it is. Are you truly hypertensive? No idea. I wouldn’t necessarily “trust” the machines at the grocery store. BP cuffs are made in different sizes because a wrong size will yield inaccurate readings. A manual sphygmomanometer with someone trained to do it properly is more trustworthy imo.
But can endurance athletes have high systolic BP? Sure.
I recently took my blood pressure at a machine in front of the pharmacy at my local grocery store.
I took it the first time and it was 150/60. I took it a few more times thinking that that couldn’t be correct and it went down to 137/57 on my third test. I was shocked at the high systolic and the low diastolic reading.
The drugstore machines measure diastolic pressure as the disappearance of sound (S5). Physiologically, S4 (the muffling of sound) is more accurate. Anyway, no worries about 60 mmHg. Also, those machines sometimes measure systolic pressure as the “knocking sound” before the blood squirts through the cuff. But 150 mmHg is high, so get the systolic checked by the regular method.
Endurance athletes are no exception to the current healthy blood pressure rule: Systolic under 120, diastolic under 80.
I’m 130/70 with a resting pulse of 40. Doctors who don’t understand athletes see this and caution be about being “borderline hypertensive” due to the 130. Those that understand endurance athletes have told me this is perfectly normal in highly trained persons (the high systolic is due to fewer, more powerful contractions).
It’s just like considering a bodybuilder with 3% body fat “obese” because he has a high BMI. Reason #238 to use a doctor that understands athletes.
Bingo. Back in April when I got Rhabdo and had to see a lot of doctors without much choice over who I saw, I had to explain the same thing over and over and over again. My GP and my physio get it, most other doctors don’t. It’s ok though, we’re abnormal.
My EKG indicated sinus bradycardia (with an avg HR of 53 or so during the test). My GF was out in the secondary waiting area outside the exam room and overheard the doctors talking about the results and had to remind them that I was a triathlete.
My BP is pretty much normal though. 110ish/70ish usually.
What are the potential causes of high blood pressure in an endurance athlete who exercises 10 hours per week, eats healthy, doesn’t smoke, healthy BMI?
I recently took my blood pressure at a machine in front of the pharmacy at my local grocery store.
I took it the first time and it was 150/60. I took it a few more times thinking that that couldn’t be correct and it went down to 137/57 on my third test. I was shocked at the high systolic and the low diastolic reading.
The drugstore machines measure diastolic pressure as the disappearance of sound (S5). Physiologically, S4 (the muffling of sound) is more accurate. Anyway, no worries about 60 mmHg. Also, those machines sometimes measure systolic pressure as the “knocking sound” before the blood squirts through the cuff. But 150 mmHg is high, so get the systolic checked by the regular method. Endurance athletes are no exception to the current healthy blood pressure rule: Systolic under 120, diastolic under 80.
This is what my doc has told me for the last several years. I’m usually in the range of 125/50 to 130/55. Resting heart rate around 45-50. She’s mildly concerned about my systolic numbers, saying it does not matter that you train like crazy.
My bp is about 120/75. I can keep taking it until I get the answer I want. (I have a bp machine at home.) My resting HR is in the 60’s but I can will it down into the 50’s.
things as little as feeling stressed, rushed, nervous, aggravated, ect can temporarily effect blood pressure. so can any food w/ caffeine. there’s also a alot of other little things that can effect it as well. this is why doctors don’t diagnose high BP unless there are multiple, usually 2-3) visits with the same BP
There are about 732,304 reasons why this value may be what it is. Are you truly hypertensive? No idea. I wouldn’t necessarily “trust” the machines at the grocery store. BP cuffs are made in different sizes because a wrong size will yield inaccurate readings. A manual sphygmomanometer with someone trained to do it properly is more trustworthy imo.
But can endurance athletes have high systolic BP? Sure.
qft.
When i was a dyed in the wool coach potato my blood pressure was 110/65. Now well more than a decade + later it’s 112/65.
What are the potential causes of high blood pressure in an endurance athlete who exercises 10 hours per week, eats healthy, doesn’t smoke, healthy BMI?
Dietary risk factors that may increase BP in endurance athletes include high sodium intake, low potassium intake, moderate/high alcohol intake (more than 1 drink for women, more than 2 for men), and wheat if sensitive to gluten. Possibly, long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like ibuprofen or naproxen) may increase systolic BP.
Endurance athletes are no exception to the current healthy blood pressure rule: Systolic under 120, diastolic under 80.“Resting Blood Pressure Values of Adult Athletes” found cyclists had the highest blood pressure amongst 3,700 athletes studied. The cyclists were young (avg 24 yrs old) and trained 23.8 +/- 6.6 hrs/wk and had an average Systolic pressure over 140.
Interesting article. I just had my first physical in about 5 years (26 yr old, no health issues) and everything checked out fine except BP. I was at 145/70, doc chalked it up to nerves about being at the doctor.
Go have this checked by a Doctor. Do a search on ST for “vibrolux” and read why I had to retire from intense racing and training. I’m just saying get it checked.
Using one of the BP kiosks is probably one of the worst ways to test your BP. People plop down after getting in their car, drive to the store, and walk through the store. Really poor conditions to test BP…also why you undoubtedly saw your BP drop after you took multiple readings. Your HR and BP were dropping as you sat there and “recovered.”
Factor in that those machines are often out of calibration and the cuff size issue someone else mentioned and you have a recipe for inaccurate readings. If you are really concerned about your BP, get a home BP monitor and use it regularly at the same time of day and track it. You will begin to get a much better understanding of your BP. Also remember that BP readings are not static measurements. BP fluctuates throughout the day, day to day amd week to week. One more reason to track your BP on a consistent basis if you are concerned about it.
Interesting article. I just had my first physical in about 5 years (26 yr old, no health issues) and everything checked out fine except BP. I was at 145/70, doc chalked it up to nerves about being at the doctor.Note the article didn’t mention anything about whether those levels were healthy. They just observed they existed.
“Resting Blood Pressure Values of Adult Athletes” found cyclists had the highest blood pressure amongst 3,700 athletes studied. The cyclists were young (avg 24 yrs old) and trained 23.8 +/- 6.6 hrs/wk and had an average Systolic pressure over 140.
What’s going on with male cyclists in Hungary? They seem to be a select group, probably averaging over 400 miles/wk. Why no endurance runners?
Well, the way I look at the graphs, BPs for the cyclists although moderately elevated are not significantly different from that for the controls.