For El Paso residents flirting with high blood pressure, a new study out of UTEP suggests you might want to swap the treadmill for the heavy bag. A randomized trial led by researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso and partner institutions in Chile found that six weeks of boxing-style heavy‑bag training produced clinically meaningful drops in blood pressure among young adults with elevated readings. Volunteers who trained like boxers three times a week saw both systolic and diastolic pressure fall by amounts physicians usually consider significant, adding a time‑efficient and popular workout option to the toolkit for early hypertension management.
As reported in the journal Sports, the randomized trial enrolled 24 adults with an average age of about 25 and split them into a boxing group and a low‑intensity control group. The boxing participants trained three times per week for six weeks, completing ten three‑minute rounds on a heavy bag or working mitts with one‑minute rests between rounds. The control group did flexibility and balance work on the same schedule. On average, the boxing group logged reductions of roughly 16 mmHg in systolic blood pressure and about 10 mmHg in diastolic pressure, along with improvements in central systolic pressure and in endothelial function in both arms and legs…