Every morning, my mother checks her blood pressure. This helps her control her heart health. It's reassuring to know that she can also control her health with relatively simple habits. I have noticed how regular exercise balances her blood pressure. I recently realised that even half a minute or one extra minute of exercise can make a lot in my daily schedule.New research published in Circulation, led by University College London's Jo Blodgett, reveals adding just five minutes of exercise a day can help bring down blood pressure. "The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn't take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure," Blodgett said.The uniqueness of the study lies in scrutinizing all kinds of activities taken by a person in the day, such as climbing stairs to cycling short distances. This shows that these minor changes can easily be incorporated into our daily routines.Hypertension or high blood pressure is now a global health problem: about 1.3 billion adults worldwide have the condition. It is one of the major causes of premature death and often accompanied by stroke and heart disease. More than 14,000 adults wore activity trackers that measured how much they engaged in six different activities: sleep, sedentary behavior, slow walking, fast walking, standing, and vigorous exercise-such as running or stair climbing. The details from these trackers painted a vivid picture of what participants were up to every day, and the result was enlightening indeed.The average participant reported seven hours of sleep, ten hours of sedentary activities such as sitting three hours of standing, one hour of slow walking and fast walking, and just 16 minutes of vigorous activities like running or cycling. Blodgett's team used these data to model the effect of substituting even five minutes of sedentary time with active exercise. They found this tiny difference could lower systolic blood pressure-the top number in a reading-by as much as 0.68 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure-the bottom number-by 0.54 mmHg.These may be small improvements individually, but they certainly are worth a lifetime in the long run. Just a drop of 2 mmHg in systolic pressure and 1 mmHg in diastolic pressure would halve the cases of heart disease by as much as 10%. This proves the significance of adding 10 to 20 minutes of exercise in the health sector. According to Blodgett, an example of this is exercise that induces heart rate rises; such as cycling, stair climbing, and brisk walking. Such people who cannot carry out vigorous exercise will experience some benefits if they walk regularly.The fact that as few as five extra minutes of exercise or vigorous incidental activities per day may be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings really puts into relief how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management," he added.3 Exercises to Lower BPFor those who want to manage hypertension, here are three of the best exercises that should be included in daily routines:1. Brisk Walking: One should walk faster than his or her usual pace so that his or her heart rate and breathing rate increase. Ten minutes is the minimum to make it effective.2. Cycling: Pedal actively for at least 10 minutes. Attending a cycling class helps keep this activity structured.3. Dancing: Zumba or some other form of dance that involves the movement of the full body counts. The target is to keep the heart rate up.