Fitness
Fitness: Does high blood pressure limit your exercise options?
Exercise has long been associated with heart health. Walk, run, swim, bike or lift on a regular basis and your risk of heart disease and stroke decreases dramatically. The rewards are almost instantaneous with a drop in blood pressure notable when you swap out time on the couch for time in the gym. That’s good news for anyone with high blood pressure, which increases the chances of adverse cardiac events.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada says about one in four Canadians have been diagnosed with hypertension. That number increases in an older demographic to 51 per cent in Canadians 60-79 years of age.
In most cases, exercise is considered safe for anyone who is effectively managing their blood pressure through medication or changes to their lifestyle. But it’s common for health-care professionals, including many organizations like the European Society of Hypertension, American College of Cardiology and the International Society of Hypertension, to advise keeping intensity in the moderate range to avoid the added cardiac stress associated with high intensity aerobic exercise. But the science related to the risk of hypertension and physical activity was largely informed by self-reported data that, when it comes to exercise, is unreliable. Not only do people routinely fudge how often they exercise, when it comes to intensity of effort there is little uniformity in determining whether a workout is light, moderate or vigorous.
With the growing number of studies using wearable devices to accurately track activity over the course of a full day, an increasing number of exercise recommendations are being scrutinized based on more reliable data. To find out more about the relationship between exercise intensity and hypertension, a team of Australian researchers analyzed a large cohort of adults with high blood pressure who wore an accelerometer to track their daily activity.
“Using wearables-based data, our study is among the first to investigate the potential role of cardiovascular stress-related physical activity properties (intensity and bout length) on major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with diagnosed hypertension,” the researchers said.
The researchers arranged 38,960 U.K. residents with hypertension into groups based on exercise intensity and duration. Short bouts of exercise were defined as up to three minutes at a moderate intensity and no longer than one minute at high intensity. Long bouts were any workout over five minutes of moderate intensity and over two minutes of high-intensity exercise. Hospitalization records of the cohort were then cross referenced over an eight-year period highlighting any documentation of a stroke, heart attack or heart failure.
The results offer new insight into how different types of exercise affect the heart health of people with high blood pressure.
The good news is short bouts (up to 60 seconds) of high-intensity exercise proved not only safe, but also offer a protective effect, with fewer cardiac events found in study participants who exercised using multiple short bouts of high-intensity exercise. But the same can’t be said for high-intensity exercise lasting more than 10 minutes.
“Such prolonged bouts could induce adverse vascular stress and adrenal gland dysfunction, which subsequently contribute to dysregulated cardiovascular function and induce increased arterial pressure,” the researchers said. “This can damage arterial walls, leading to increased stroke incidence.”
That doesn’t mean everyone with hypertension needs to avoid longer workouts done at a higher intensity. But if it’s a struggle keeping your blood pressure in a safe range and you want to start training for a speedy 5K, you may want to consult with your physician and/or cardiologist.
“The cardioprotective effects of physical activity in hypertension depend not only intensity, but also on the duration of the physical activity bouts,” the researchers said.
On the flip side, if you love doing multiple short bouts of high-intensity intervals in the pool, gym or on your bike, your heart is not only likely up to the challenge, but will also benefit from being put through its paces.
How do you know whether your workout is high or moderate intensity? Take the cue from the research team and start relying on wearables to track your exercise stats. Exercise intensity is based on heart rate response during exercise while factoring in your maximum heart rate, which is based on age, both of which can be tracked on most smart watches.
And since smart watches keep all the historical data from your workouts you can share your heart rate’s response to exercise with your medical team and discuss the most prudent form of exercise. Cardiac events while exercising are rare, but the accumulation of stress on the heart can lead to complications down the road. The best option is to find an exercise format that improves heart health in the long and short term as well as meeting the rest of your health and fitness goals.
“Our findings, alongside recent device-based studies focused on short bouts of high intensity activities, provide valuable insights for potentially re-evaluating treatment options for patients with hypertension,” the researchers said.
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Fitness
Steffie Bryant, Alistair Brownlee to Share AI, Performance Insights at European Congress – Health & Fitness Association
From artificial intelligence to elite sport, the HFA European Congress keynote speakers will explore the forces reshaping health and fitness around the world.
By Lia Palazzo, Manager of Public Affairs
Steffie Bryant and Alistair Brownlee are set to offer the two keynote addresses at the 2026 HFA European Congress.
Artificial intelligence and high-performance leadership will take center stage at the 2026 HFA European Congress, where Keepme.ai President Steffie Bryant and two-time Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee will headline the annual gathering of fitness industry leaders.
The Congress, scheduled for September 24-26 at London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, will bring together executives, operators, suppliers, investors, and innovators from more than 35 countries to explore the trends shaping the future of health and fitness.
Bryant will open the event on September 24 with a keynote examining how artificial intelligence is transforming fitness businesses. As president of Keepme.ai, she has helped clubs adopt AI-driven tools to strengthen member engagement, improve operations, and drive sustainable growth. Her session will focus on how operators can leverage emerging technology while maintaining a people-first approach. Her keynote is sponsored by Keepme.ai.
Brownlee will headline the second day of the Congress, sharing lessons from Olympic competition, entrepreneurship, and health innovation. The only athlete to win two Olympic gold medals in the individual triathlon, Brownlee is also founder of sports nutrition company truefuels, an investor in health and wellness companies, and co-founder of the Brownlee Foundation, which promotes youth participation in sport.
The speaker lineup reflects this year’s Congress theme, One Vision. One Voice., which focuses on the role innovation, collaboration, and leadership will play in the next chapter of the global fitness industry.
In addition to the keynote presentations, attendees will hear from more than 40 speakers from the fitness sector and related industries addressing trends, GLP-1 usage and exercise, emerging markets to watch, investment opportunities, retention, payment ecosystems, corporate wellness, community initiatives, and more. The full schedule can be viewed here and includes time to connect with suppliers in the Sponsor Marketplace. On September 26, attendees can participate in club and studio tours across London. The club tours can be added at the time of registration.
Presented in partnership with ukactive and hosted by industry leader David Minton of EVOLVE, the HFA European Congress is the industry’s premier European event, offering business leaders insight into emerging trends, new technologies, and opportunities shaping the future of the industry.
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In 2025, the global Virtual Reality fitness market was estimated to be worth between $30 – $50 billion dollars and by the mid 2030’s, it is likely to be estimated to be worth up to 400 billion dollars. Big name companies like Meta, Apple, Sony, Samsung and Nike, are investing a lot of money into the field.
One 2025 study by the University of Victoria found that more people utilising VR fitness programs were exercising for longer periods of time. VR based fitness users actively worked out sessions that were an average of 34% longer and VR fitness users were also 2.2 times more likely to complete weekly physical workout requirements than users of traditional home workout equipment.
The real question is, how viable is the market and how much of an opportunity is there for VC-funded startups that are working on the future of fitness technology?
Why Virtual Fitness is Worth Watching
VR fitness is built to solve the problem of the dropout of users of home fitness programs. According to studies, traditional home workouts suffer from dropout rates of 50% within three months. Repetitive workouts become boring and are a drain on motivation.
However, exercising in VR allows fitness to be gamified and VR fitness studies have uncovered an important phenomenon: users perceive their heart rate and effort to be lower than it is and are likely to work out even harder than in traditional settings.
Can You Actually Become Fitter With VR Fitness?
There is no shortage of virtual fitness games out there and yes, you can actually become fitter through a faster heart rate and all while ‘playing a game’ that might not seem so exhaustive when compared to the gym. Active VR games can create an effective aerobic workout and burn calories on par with biking or light jogging.
These games produce real results and the research backs it up. Active VR workouts consistently produce heart rates in the aerobic zone. Game examples include Beat Saber, Supernatural, Les Mills Body Combat VR and Thrill of the Fight.
Opportunities to Expand into Mental Well-Being Through VR
VR fitness isn’t just about physical output. Immersive environments have documented effects on stress and mood, exercising in a virtual forest or on a clifftop coastline produces different psychological responses to a gym mirror.
This mental wellness dimension is opening a new product category: VR fitness platforms that blur into mindfulness apps, targeting the significant overlap between corporate wellness programmes and mental health investment.
What Are The Limitations of Virtual Fitness?
Currently the biggest weakness in VR fitness is the lack of options for strength training. The types of movements that build and maintain muscle mass, like squats and deadlifts, can’t be effectively done in VR without some added equipment. One of the few companies that have started to tackle this problem is Black Box VR, which offers gyms combining VR and cable resistance.
Startups Worth Keeping an Eye On in The VR Fitness Sector
There are a handful of innovative startups in the VR fitness industry that are worth watching in 2026 and beyond- from subscription-based fitness tools to interactive challenges that help increase stamina and even strength:
Supernatural
In 2023, Meta completed its acquisition of Supernatural and integrated the VR fitness platform into the expanding Meta Quest ecosystem. The service offers users daily workouts set in immersive real-world locations, enhanced by licensed music and guided instruction.
As a subscription-based platform, Supernatural has consistently demonstrated some of the strongest retention rates in the consumer VR market, highlighting the viability of the VR fitness subscription model. In 2026, Meta announced that Supernatural would be spun off into a new independent company, Supernatural Health, led by the platform’s original founders. Supernatural Health is expected to relaunch in autumn 2026 with higher subscription pricing, reflecting a renewed focus on growing the platform as a standalone fitness business.
Black Box VR
Purpose-built VR gyms seem to be the focus of Black Box VR. Combining resistance machines and immersive environments is an interesting approach, especially with the existing VR home ecosystems providing frictionless workouts. Black Box VR’s franchise model suggests that they believe the hybrid VR/gym model will bring an edge over the competition when compared to only a software solution.
HOLOFIT
HOLOFIT is a virtual reality fitness platform developed by Holodia that transforms cardio workouts into immersive experiences. Using a VR headset, users can row, cycle, run, or perform bodyweight exercises while exploring virtual worlds and completing interactive challenges.
The platform connects with rowing machines, exercise bikes and ellipticals, making workouts more engaging and motivating through gamification, virtual coaching and online competitions.
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