The Best Workout to Bust High Blood Pressure

Your physical job still might not be enough.

Working out at work isn’t enough: Even if you have a physically demanding job, it’s your off-hours fitness that keeps your blood pressure in check, says new Chinese research.
In the study, people who exercised between 1 and 3 hours a week had an 11 percent lower risk for high blood pressure than those who logged less than an hour. But the researchers didn’t find a link between active jobs and reduced BP.

Why? Manual labor often requires repetitive motion, which stresses only certain body parts or small muscle groups and can cause injury. But recreational exercise often works multiple muscle groups, which ramps up your heart rate for the whole-body metabolic boost needed to fight hypertension, according to the study.
So whether you have a desk job or one that requires physical work, staying active in your time off is the key to reducing your risk. Beat from the daily grind? Try one of these six quick, stress-relieving workouts to keep your job strain (and BP) under control.