Cycling UK Forum

My blood pressure is being discussed (yet) again at the health centre.
I reckon my BP changes quite a bit. Sometimes it's high and sometimes it's low.

They've asked me (again) to check it and I have done. They want me to record five day's worth. They suggest when I'm relaxed and before a meal, so I've been checking in the mornings before breakfast.
Best of three readings each time.
Thur - 128/90
Fri - 134/93
Today (Sat) - 139/83

However ........... after the rain finished this morning, I went out this afternoon for a 24mile ride into the Devon hills.
After getting home and resting, I tried again.

103/77

I think I'm going to go out cycling every day, and then record the post ride readings.

I believe it is normal for bp to be low after exercise, it certainly is for me - it usually comes out about
110/75 as opposed to 'normal' of around 130/80.

When you exercise your veins open up hence lower blood pressure

I think that during exercise blood pressure increases and afterwards falls. The more intensive the exercise, the more marked the effect.

I have notoriously low BP, they often have trouble finding a vein to take blood! My at rest bpm is @ 45 and the medics only ever seem to be bemused by my readings!

I think I would be a bit concerned, not at the difference between rest and post exercise but by the wide variance in the at rest numbers. I'm certainly no medic but i'd be hoping to see more consistency in the figures. Are they monitoring heart rate too, not just spot figures but over a longer period?

Years ago in my younger days, I did x/c foot races, and I recall being particularly light headed afterwards in the evenings. A doctor told me at the time that during exercise blood pressure increases, and afterwards dips. The more intense the exercise the more noticeable the effect.

Thanks guys!
That explains it.

I've always been light-headed after a ride, even going back to age 10 or 11.

jessand wrote:I believe it is normal for bp to be low after exercise....

Yep. That's certainly my experience and a tactic I use before going for my six-monthly BP check-up

Blood pressure is a decidedly dodgy area. For long now it has been accepted that “white coat syndrome” can affect readings taken in a clinical setting, hence the common practice now of getting the patient to take their own BP readings. But even this, it seems to me, can have its own problems. I am sure that I have now become conditioned to a type of self-generated anxiety when I take my own BP, making even the readings I take in the supposedly less anxiety-inducing home environment rather suspect. Like those of the OP my own BP readings can be highly erratic. FWIW it seems that of particular concern to medics is a larger than normal difference between the systolic and diastolic values. I am also not sure of the wisdom of a rather head-in-the-sand attitude where one selects those readings which the doctor will like whilst discounting the less acceptable ones as anomalous, something I admit to doing.) Of course exercise does help reduce BP. When the better weather allows longer rides, I’ll take some more readings

My BP is also all over the place....I've recently had to keep AM/PM records for a week and I've had the thing on my arm that records my BP over 24 hours.

BP always lower after a good ride AND always lower in summer.

I had one of those 24hr machines issued to me. They told me to carry on normal life (but not get it wet).

I took them at their word, and went on a bike ride. The machine nearly blew a fuse!
I couldn't sleep that night as the thing was squeezing my arm every half hour. I didn't sleep at all. I was very stressed indeed.
The readings this machine took were of no value whatsoever. A complete waste of time.

Took my BP again this morning, but it was quiet and peaceful sitting in my own armchair. I'd had a good night's sleep and was warm and comfortable. I strapped the thing on and relaxed and relaxed and relaxed over a cup of tea. Half an hour later, I pressed the button.

120 over 83.

Best out of three?
No, I stuck at that one!

Mick F wrote:My blood pressure is being discussed (yet) again at the health centre.
I reckon my BP changes quite a bit. Sometimes it's high and sometimes it's low.

They've asked me (again) to check it and I have done. They want me to record five day's worth. They suggest when I'm relaxed and before a meal, so I've been checking in the mornings before breakfast.
Best of three readings each time.
Thur - 128/90
Fri - 134/93
Today (Sat) - 139/83

However ........... after the rain finished this morning, I went out this afternoon for a 24mile ride into the Devon hills.
After getting home and resting, I tried again.

103/77

I think I'm going to go out cycling every day, and then record the post ride readings.

Quite normal for BP to be low post excercise.

Our BP varies enormously during the day. When you take it are you sitting and resting for five mins beforehand?

There are now NICE guidelines for BP self-monitoring, which involve a regular 14-day routine of taking two readings five minutes apart twice a day. The first day's results are then discarded and the remaining days averaged. This method helps mitigate (though it doesn't completely resolve) the sort of erratic findings which have been described. I go through this every couple of months, and after a year it's possible to see patterns which are pretty reliable indicators of any trends.

I'm taking part in a long-term BP survey (as I'm on medication for it), and every three months I have to check and record my BP three times in the morning, a minute apart, and the same again in the evening, for seven days. It then averages that. My last set averaged 121/82 morning and 109/67 evening, but the variation can be surprising - I sometimes see systolic at under 100, especially after exercise.

Alan O wrote:I'm taking part in a long-term BP survey (as I'm on medication for it), and every three months I have to check and record my BP three times in the morning, a minute apart, and the same again in the evening, for seven days. It then averages that. My last set averaged 121/82 morning and 109/67 evening, but the variation can be surprising - I sometimes see systolic at under 100, especially after exercise.

You've probably also noticed that if you check repeatedly every minute or so while consciously relaxing, the systolic can drop as much as 20+ points over a few minutes.