this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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Fitness

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tl;dr: looking for a moderately intense upper body workout that will impact heart rate the most.

I am a "new" runner again after not going out of my way to exercise for the last 20 years or so. My blood pressure had gotten insane (resting rate was clocked at +180/+120 at a Dr. checkup earlier this year.) so I decided to take action.

For the past couple of months, I have been working my way up from walking, to power-walking, to almost jogging and now into actual running at probably a 8-10 minute/mile pace. Thankfully, I have always been on the thinner side, so I get to focus purely on cardio for now.

Of course, my posture and gait sucked ass at first and I was pushing too hard without much recovery time, so as a result, I am babysitting minor MCL injuries right now. There isn't anything torn or anything, just sore as hell. I literally just got back from a 2.5 mile walk, but it was kind of pointless as it was extremely slow pace and I had to stay focused on knee safety.

However, as a result of the walking/jogging/running, my resting blood pressure is already down to a reasonable average of 124/90 and my Dr. has reduced my BP meds (beta blockers). As hell has apparently frozen over, she even managed to crack a smile over my lifestyle changes. (She has seen me through some rough times to include my most severe alcoholism days, so I was just used to stern looks and pseudo-lectures.)

Through my fitness apps, I noticed a direct correlation between max heart rate achieved (over time) to reduction of BP and lower resting heart rate and I want more!

On my running down time/recovery time, I would like keep to pushing my heart rate a bit. What upper body exercises are best for heart rate as I still am able to commit 1-1.5 hrs per day to fitness? Until I can plateau my fitness level and switch to more "maintenance syle" exercises, I would prefer to keep pushing fairly hard.

Any suggestions would be appreciated and I hope my storytime post gave context to my situation. Cheers!

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[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Walking on an incline is a lower impact method of raising intensity without increasing strain on the joints, but it really only works if you're using a treadmill or some kind of one-way trip (if you're making a round trip loop you'll have to have as much downhill as uphill). I also find cycling to be lower impact than running.

If you have access to a well equipped gym, some have arm pedaling machines for cardio without legs. Rowers tend to use both upper and lower body, so that for any given level of intensity your lower body will be feeling less stress than if you were running.

If you can hold something heavy, like a kettlebell or just anything, you can probably do something like kettlebell swings, or chops, or if the heavy thing you have isn't fragile, some throws.

If you have ropes you can make waves with them, pull weights with them (while keeping your legs stationary to reduce strain on your knees), etc.

And if you don't have any equipment, there are plenty of body weight exercises that don't put too much stress on your knees: mountain climbers, body builders, flutter kicks, bicycle crunches, leg lifts, push ups, etc.

It might be that your arm or core strength in some of these exercises can't get your heart rate up as high, and that's fine. You'll still be improving, and eventually you'll feel that you're taxing your heart and lungs.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

My under desk walking pad just arrived and it can incline up to 10°, so I am covered on that front. I was just planning on 0° just to keep my legs moving, but I'll go ahead and crank it up.

My office has a gym that I have scoped out already, and had only considered the tread mills up until now. Ill re-survey the gym next week so I can adjust my plans for a more comprehensive afternoon workout. Upper body in the afternoons seems like a better plan for my schedule, actually.

Cool. I have saved this post and will experiment with different things over the next few weeks. Thanks for the writeup!