Endurance exercises
Why they reduce blood pressure
A FEW years back I attended a presentation for lawyers at a medical school by a professor of anatomy who had completed the Boston Marathon only days earlier.
A strong runner, he delighted in relating his experience so I took the opportunity to ask him what effect endurance exercise has on the cardiovascular system. His response was short and to the point. It makes the whole system stronger, he said. Your blood pressure of course is part of that system.
Endurance exercise opens your arteries. The much publicised autopsy of Clarence Demar who was still running marathons at age 70 showed that he had very large coronary arteries, probably developed as a result of his lifetime of vigorous exercise.
Regular exercise also opens the large networks of tiny blood vessels connecting the arteries with the veins. All of these factors results in lower blood pressure.
Think of your circulatory system, a hose with many branches increasing the diameter of the hose, reducing the pressure in the system. Likewise adding hundreds small connection rubbers or capillaries into which blood escape reduces the overall pressure. In untrained individuals the hose is smaller and the connecting branches are constricted or closed which leads high blood pressure.
Endurance exercise also makes the heart bigger and stronger so that it can pump more blood with each stroke. That is why wellconditioned athletes have low resting heart rates.
Only a fraction of their capacity is required to supply their capacity. Roger Bannister’s resting heart rate was in 70s before he trained to become the world’s first four-minute miler. At the time he set the record, his resting heart rate was less than 40 beats per minute.
What about bodybuilding?
The double berated effect
To be effective exercise should involve a lot of muscle, that’s where bodybuilding comes into the blood pressure picture. No other form of exercise systematically trains all the muscles and blood vessels like bodybuilding.
This is especially true of the upper body muscle that are often neglected in endurance exercise like running and biking which involves mainly the lower body. Bodybuilders develop the capillary system in each body part they work. The total effect is to enlarge the capillary system throughout the body.
This allows the blood to spread out which lowers the overall pressure. Weight training builds and maintains muscles tissue and muscle tissue burns calories even at rest. Fat tissue is inactive and burns very few calories.
This makes a tremendous difference. Exercise physiologists estimate that one pound of resting muscle burns the equivalent of five pounds of body fat over the course of a year.
The writer, Simon Gama is a fitness trainer at Body Works in Bulawayo. THE Zifa Southern Regions Area Zones have been restructured with the body now incorporating a host of social soccer leagues that has been operating independently.
Previously the arm of Zifa has mainly been operating as the Bulawayo Amateur Football Association, with the executive of the oldest league in the country representing the area zones.
However, a new structure has been created in the Southern Region that is now accommodating other leagues that include Bulawayo Social Soccer League (BSSL), Ntabazinduna League, Bulawayo Christian League and the Legends League.
Former Bafa vice-chairman, Charles Chunda is now in charge of Area Zones in the province.
BSSL organising secretary Jimias Cheteni, who was roped in as vice-chairman, said they are ready to build a new organisation that will encompass all social leagues.
“It is a welcome development because we are now officially under the auspices of Zifa, who are the custodians of football in the country and I believe this will have an impact on our game. “Organisationally, I think we are going to improve as we interact with the mother body we will certainly get guidelines on how to best manage the game and I believe this can be attractive to sponsors,” he said.
Cheteni said they are looking forward to creating relationships with other Zifa structures to enable them to widen their scope in the sport.
He added it would also be easier to monitor players who swing from top tier leagues to feature in social soccer league matches.
“The Zifa VP, (Omega Sibanda) has also spoken out about referees officiating at social soccer league matches in the mornings then later take charge of competitive league games and with us being part of Zifa we can now co-operate and ensure we can get work hand in hand to avoid this problem,” he said.
Chunda said they are likely to have a bigger Townshend and Butcher Trophy involving teams from the other leagues although they are still to come up with the finalities of the tournament, which is the oldest knock-out competition in the area zones.
He said they would be finalising the list of other members to be added to the executive.