Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

And today we're going to talk about whether or not weight lifting is bad for your heart.

Now, I want you to do something. Hold your breath.

Now, try and make a giant oomph sound without actually letting go of your breath.

You'll feel lots of pressure build up inside you as you do this.

The Valsalva maneuver is the term given to this action of creating lots of internal pressure

by trying to breathe out against a closed epiglottis, which is the fancy anatomical word for that flap that

opens and closes your esophagus. Now, you may also be familiar with the Velsalva maneuver as something

that you might do when you pinch your nose shut and try to equalize pressure when you dive deep

underwater in the pool or the ocean, or something you do on a plane to try and equalize

pressure in your ears.

But often, even if you do it by accident, you perform the Valsalva maneuver when you're lifting

weights.

Now based on the fact that this Valsalva maneuver can increase internal pressure, there is

a prevailing belief that the same type of oomph sound you make during weightlifting

increases your blood pressure and may actually make you more prone to a heart attack if you have heart

problems. But is it a misconception that weightlifting raises blood pressure, or should you really

steer clear of the weights if you have heart issues or high blood pressure?

Well, you're about to find out.

Let's start with a quick introduction to what blood pressure actually is.

Now, the quick and dirty tips house called doctor has a great episode about blood pressure that I'll link to in the show notes.

But basically, blood pressure is a measure of the pressure exerted by circulating blood on the walls of your blood vessels as blood is pumped through

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