Cycling Blood Pressure 2022

Cycling Blood Pressure

Cycling Blood Pressure and cycling go hand in hand, since the more miles in the legs the body builds more capillaries to carry blood to the muscles from the heart,  which relieves the blood pressure in the body.

For those of you that don’t have time to workout….

High Blood Pressure

Now today while harassing my wife with Jokes as usual, I noticed she was taking her blood pressure with this thing wrapped around her arm. She has recently noticed a spike in her blood pressure. Her doctor had suggested that she get back on her bike when possible and do some daily deep breathing exercises. Apparently the soap opera at work has been getting under her skin. My wife doesn’t like to hurt other people’s feelings, so she keeps a lot of things on the inside.

I guess that’s one reason she married me. I don’t think too much about other people’s feelings, I say what comes to my mind. Maybe that’s why I don’t have too many friends…..hmmm could be. Anyhow, I don’t have too much time for a large number of friends anyway. Maybe that’s why Facebook is popular…oh well.

Since the increased blood pressure had persisted for more that a month, he temporarily put her on blood pressure medication. Well my wife is a young lady and being wired as I am, I have this thing against taking meds to fix issues. I really don’t like doctors that much nor lawyers…anyhow I digress.

Workout Regimen

My wife is one of those girls that works out from time to time to maybe fit a certain outfit for a particular event, or to complete a new workout program she and a friend had decided to try.

She is nothing like me, her husband, who is die hard exercise fanatic, irritable when workouts are missed for any reason (rain, sleet, snow, work intrusion, distant relatives requests & etc) and that is why I love her so much. I think I would get on my nerves.

Firing your Doctor

Now I have no idea what my blood pressure is or what it should be, seeing that one of my goals in life has always been to only use doctors when absolutely necessary (like when my appendix decided to rupture). The doctor who did the operation had to walk me through the theoretical process of how my stomach muscles would not be cut, but separated to get to the appendix, before I conceded.

Hey he was good. Three weeks later I was on my bike and actually came across him while riding my bike in traffic in Austin (it’s a small city). He remembered me and we chatted at the light. I am not sure if his memory of me was due to the fact that I was a model patient or a pain in rear.

In fact, I think the reason I worked out in so many disciplines and always have (soccer, basketball, swimming, running track, calisthenics and my love: cycling), has been to make sure my doctor stays fired, especially the guy that told me he couldn’t do anything for my sprained ankle unless I broke it, then proceeded to charge me for the office visit.

Blood Pressure Readings

So I walked in and quietly asked her if she would take my blood pressure (me doing anything quietly takes a special effort on my part). I don’t know if I mentioned that my wife is a nurse and the last thing she wants to do at home is any nursing related activity after a long day at the surgery center.

She approaches me with a curious look on her face and quietly wraps this plastic thing around my left bicep. Her expression  was one of hmmm…why is he all of a sudden interested in blood pressure? So I answered the question she had on her face:”I just want to know what my blood pressure is”, I quipped.

She pushes some button and the wrap tightens around my arm and after what seemed to me to be about a minute, the machine beeped and displayed 113 on the top and 67 on the bottom.  Okay I said, “what does this mean”? She says “its good”. I retorted, “compared to what”? She laughs and says “the range for a man your age should be 120 over 90”, whatever that means, and she then continues; “but your numbers are more like that of a teenager”.

So I reply and say,” I guess all those miles in my legs are a good thing then”. She laughs quietly, knowing I am setting her up for the freedom of allowing me to put in more miles in the very near future,  with no conflict at home.

So keep riding fellow cyclists, it’s fun and it keeps you healthy. I ride 10hours every week, sometimes more in my training plan. That’s 6 hours on the weekend and 4 hours spread over 5 days. We owe that to ourselves.