title: Ask the doctor. Sometimes I take a walk while wearing my blood pressure cuff. For the first few minutes, as I walk at a modest pace, my systolic blood pressure rises from 115 to 130 or so, while my heart rate hardly changes from its usual 60-something beats per minute. But when I start walking faster, my systolic pressure stays steady or sometimes goes down a bit, while my heart rate increases to 110. Is this a normal pattern? Can you explain what is going on?
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Forman
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D006304:Health Status; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*