Wall squats may lower blood pressure after four weeks

Adults who did wall squats three times a week maintained blood-pressure improvements over eight weeks in a 100-person study published Sept. 29 in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine.

Evidence grade: Moderate (consistent observational data or small trials). The finding matters because nearly half of U.S. adults, about 120 million people, have high blood pressure, according to CDC estimates cited by Healthline.

The researchers wrote that the study "offers evidence that lower frequency [isometric exercise training] can help maintain short-term [blood pressure] reductions, providing a pragmatic option for individuals with limited time or adherence challenges."

Isometric exercise means holding a position for a period rather than moving through repeated lifts or steps. In this study, participants performed a home-based lower-body wall-squat program for four weeks, while one control group did no isometric exercise.

The 100 adults had an average age of 37 and included male and female participants with normal-to-high-normal systolic blood pressure of 120–140 mm Hg. They were doing less than 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity, were not taking blood-pressure medication, did not smoke and did not drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week.

The four exercise groups all completed the same initial four-week program: wall-squat exercise separated by two minutes of seated rest, performed three times a week. The researchers reported significant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared with the control group.

During the next four weeks, one group continued three weekly sessions, one trained twice weekly, one trained once weekly and one stopped. The researchers reported that three weekly sessions produced the greatest systolic blood-pressure reduction from baseline and maintained other cardiac measures, while the group that stopped lost its earlier blood-pressure gains.

"The main takeaway is that you don’t need to exercise every day — or even several times a week — to experience significant blood pressure benefits from isometric exercise," Michael Fredericson, a professor of orthopaedic surgery at Stanford Health Care, told Healthline.

The findings apply most directly to relatively young adults with normal-to-high-normal systolic blood pressure who were not taking blood-pressure drugs and had no reported injuries or illnesses. They do not establish the same effect for older adults, people with diagnosed hypertension on medication, smokers or people with heavier alcohol intake.

High blood pressure, also called hypertension, raises the risk of heart disease and stroke. Systolic pressure measures the force when the heart beats, while diastolic pressure measures pressure between beats; usual treatment can include medication, diet and exercise.

The study cannot show whether wall squats reduce heart attacks, strokes or long-term hypertension risk. The researchers said the eight-week duration and narrow participant group limited the work.

For readers, the supported implication is modest: brief isometric exercise may be a time-efficient option to discuss in the context of blood-pressure prevention or management. Healthline quoted experts advising people who begin such programs to start gradually and build over time.

Source: Healthline News article, Oct. 1; BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine study, Sept. 29.

Atlas360 reports health research and does not provide medical advice.