This is a good idea for a thread. Sorry I'm late, been working a lot.
Before I go into what I'm doing, I'd like to share a little background info. Feel free to skip lol.
In recent years it has come to my attention that I have high blood pressure. When I found out, I did all the things - took all the stuff out of my diet that was canned or processed, no excess salt, all the potassium, and started going to the gym 5 days per week. None of this helped. Then Covid happened and the gyms closed.
Fast forward just a bit and I told my doctor to put me on blood pressure medicine and she also put me on a daily anti anxiety medicine because I had a panic attack in her office (heh). 3 days later my blood pressure was down 20 pts. Now, after a few months, my blood pressure is down 40 pts from where it was, regularly. My blood pressure is now ideal.
I've wanted to start working out again and so my husband and I bought a stationary bike and some weights. The blood pressure medicine complicates things though. The way it works is that it forces my heart to beat slower and with less strength. I'm not supposed to do anything that will raise my heart rate too high and I'm also not supposed to let my body temperature go up too high as it will be harder for me to regulate my body temperature.
I've worked my way up to doing a brisk cycle with low/med resistance over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday I went for 30 mins. Afterwards I do an upper body strength regimen because I have tendinitis in my elbow and it is hard to keep strength in my arms while not aggravating the tendinitis. So, while I am getting back into working out, which is awesome, I have to hold myself back. Gone are the days when I could go full speed with resistance for an hour a day.