Study: weekly wall squats helped keep blood pressure down for four weeks

Mixed · 2A randomised trial published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine found that four weeks of isometric wall-squat training lowered resting blood pressure in inactive adults. 1 2 Mixed · 2The study involved 100 adults with systolic blood pressure of 120 to 140 mmHg who did not regularly exercise. Newsweek reports an average age of 37.4. Participants were non-smokers, took no blood pressure medication and had no hypertension diagnosis. 1 2 Mixed · 2In the first four weeks, participants did home wall squats three times a week. Each session was four two-minute holds separated by two minutes of seated rest. Newsweek says the participants were randomly divided into five groups, one of them a control group. 1 2

Mixed · 2After four weeks, systolic pressure had fallen by about 9.5 points on average, according to Fox News, and diastolic pressure also dropped compared with the control group. Newsweek says all exercise groups improved significantly against controls in systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure. 1 2 Mixed · 2For the next four weeks, the exercise groups trained three, two, one or zero times a week. At eight weeks, those training once or twice weekly kept significant reductions in systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure compared with controls, but not in diastolic pressure. 2 1 Centre · 1Systolic pressure fell by an average of 13.73 mmHg from the start of the study in the three-times-weekly group, 6.95 mmHg in the twice-weekly group and 6.56 mmHg in the once-weekly group. Only the three-times-weekly group also kept improvements in total peripheral resistance and heart rate variability. 2

Mixed · 2Participants who stopped exercising lost their gains. By eight weeks their readings were no longer statistically different from the control group. 2 1 Centre · 1Lead author Jim Wiles, a professor at Canterbury Christ Church University, told Newsweek that training could drop to once a week for at least four more weeks before reductions began to revert. He said this makes blood pressure management with the exercise more efficient for people short of time or motivation. 2 Centre · 1The authors said lower-frequency training may be enough to maintain blood pressure reductions in the short term, but higher frequencies are needed to keep the vascular and cardiac autonomic adaptations. 2

Right · 1Cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, who was not involved in the study, called it fascinating and noted that wall squats cost nothing. He told Fox News Digital that, in his clinical experience, dietary change, specifically a low-carb Mediterranean diet, is the most effective intervention for blood pressure and metabolic health. 1 Mixed · 2The researchers noted limits. The maintenance phase lasted only four weeks, so longer trials are needed. Fox News adds that the findings cannot automatically be applied to people with diagnosed hypertension, older people with mobility limits, or people on heart medication. It also notes that participants and researchers knew each person's exercise group. 2 1