A few wall squats a week might go further than you’d think.
Researchers led by Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK found isometric exercise training, or IET, reduced blood pressure with as little as one or two sessions a week, according to a study published in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine.
IET involves holding one position for a few minutes at a time. The study text lists staying in a squat, holding a plank pose, or doing a hand grip exercise as examples.
The researchers said these exercises are simple and quick to do, require no equipment, and may suit people who cannot manage longer workouts.
The study linked IET to drops in systolic blood pressure, the top number in a reading such as 130/85, and average pressure in the arteries overall.
“Lower-frequency IET can help maintain short-term blood pressure reductions, providing a pragmatic option for individuals with limited time or adherence challenges,” the researchers wrote in the published paper.
The team said earlier studies had already linked IET to lower blood pressure, but this study looked at how much training was needed, including duration and frequency.
The researchers recruited 100 adults with an average age of 37 who were not meeting minimum exercise guidelines and had normal to high-normal systolic blood pressure in the range of 120 to 140 millimetres of mercury.
For four weeks, 80 volunteers did wall squats three times a week, with four squats in each session. The other 20 were a control group.
For the next four weeks, the exercise group either kept doing three weekly sessions or dropped to two, one, or none.
After the first four weeks, systolic blood pressure in the exercise group had dropped by an average of 9.45 millimetres of mercury compared to the control group.
Among participants who kept doing three sessions a week for eight weeks, the average drop increased to 13.73 millimetres of mercury.
For those who cut back to two sessions or one session, the average drop after eight weeks was about 6.5 to 7 millimetres of mercury.
Participants who stopped the exercises after four weeks returned to their previous blood pressure level by the end of the next four weeks.
“For optimal blood pressure reductions and the maintenance of a broader range of physiological adaptations, a frequency of three times per week may be recommended,” the researchers wrote.
The study found systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure all improved significantly compared to the control group after four weeks, though the researchers said training frequency did not make a meaningful difference to the results.
The researchers said more detailed and longer-term studies are needed to confirm how the exercises work.
“While causality cannot be confirmed, the observed alignment between the mechanistic decline and the loss of blood pressure reduction suggests that training frequency plays a critical role in sustaining the cardiovascular adaptations necessary for blood pressure control following IET,” the researchers wrote.
The team also said extending IET beyond a couple of months may lead to structural changes in blood pressure, so the benefits may not disappear as soon as exercise stops.
“[The study] may inform policy discussions around feasible, scalable exercise interventions for populations with low adherence or limited exercise tolerance,” the researchers wrote.
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