A new randomized trial suggests that a few minutes of wall squats at home may help lower blood pressure in healthy adults—and that you may not need to do them every other day to keep the gains.
What the Researchers Did
The study, published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, enrolled 100 adults with an average age of 37. All had systolic blood pressure in the normal to high-normal range (120–140 mmHg) and no hypertension diagnosis. None took blood pressure medication, smoked or exercised regularly.
Participants were split into five groups: one control and four exercise groups. For the first four weeks, the exercise groups did wall squats (an isometric exercise, meaning you hold a position rather than move) three times a week at home. Each session had four holds with two minutes of seated rest between them. For the next four weeks, three groups kept going at three, two or one session per week, and one group stopped.
What They Found
After the first four weeks, all exercise groups had significantly lower systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure than the control group. By week eight, average systolic drops from baseline were about 13.7 mmHg for three sessions a week, 7.0 mmHg for two, and 6.6 mmHg for one. The group that stopped lost its gains and no longer differed significantly from the controls.
The three-times-weekly group also kept improvements in heart rate variability and total peripheral resistance, a measure of how much resistance blood vessels put up to blood flow.
The Catch
- The maintenance phase lasted only four weeks, so this says nothing about months or years.
- Participants were relatively young, healthy and unmedicated. Results may not carry over to people with high blood pressure or those taking medication.
- The summary I read doesn’t give group sizes or hold durations, and this is one trial.
What It Means
The takeaway is modest: short, regular isometric exercise looked helpful for blood pressure in this group, and doing it less often kept part of the benefit. If you have high blood pressure, a heart condition or any health concern, check with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine.
This article is for general information, not medical advice.
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