Research
Hormonal
Aerobic endurance training reduces blood pressure by decreasing systemic vascular resistance, mediated by reductions in sympathetic nervous system activity (plasma norepinephrine) and renin-angiotensin system activity (plasma renin activity).
Your body adapts to regular aerobic exercise by relaxing your blood vessels and calming the hormonal systems that constrict them. This biological change is what lowers your blood pressure over time, not just immediate blood flow changes during exercise.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
aerobic endurance training decreases blood pressure through a reduction of vascular resistance, in which the sympathetic nervous system and the renin-angiotensin system appear to be involved.
Why this rating
Based on meta-analysis of subsets of trials reporting these specific biomarkers, which were fewer than the total trials.
Source
Effects of Endurance Training on Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure–Regulating Mechanisms, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors
Véronique Cornelissen et al. · Hypertension · 2005
DOI 10.1161/01.hyp.0000184225.05629.51
Meta-analysis · 72 studiesCited 989×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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