Simple exercise done just once a week could help lower blood pressure

Holding a wall squat for a few minutes might not feel like an intense workout, but a growing body of evidence suggests it could be one of the most effective ways to lower your blood pressure.

A trial published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine found that isometric exercise training, where muscles contract without moving the joints, leads to meaningful drops in resting blood pressure within just four weeks.

Researchers also found that daily exercise may not be necessary to maintain these benefits, as exercising just once a week was enough to preserve some heart-health improvements.

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The study followed 100 inactive adults with normal to high-normal blood pressure, defined as a systolic reading between 120 and 140 millimeters of mercury.

For the first four weeks, the participants performed lower-body isometric wall squats three times a week at home. The routine consisted of four two-minute sessions separated by two minutes of seated rest, monitored using heart-rate straps to ensure consistent effort.

After four weeks, participants’ top blood pressure number (systolic pressure) fell by about 9.5 points on average, while their bottom number (diastolic pressure) also dropped compared with the control group.

Researchers then examined the effects of reduced exercise frequency. During the following four weeks, participants were randomly assigned to train three, two, one or zero times per week.

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Those who stopped exercising completely saw their blood pressure bounce back to baseline within four weeks, essentially wiping out their progress.

In contrast, participants who kept training just once or twice a week managed to hold onto a significant portion of their blood pressure reductions.

Only the group that continued training three times weekly retained key improvements in the following metrics.

• Total peripheral resistance, which measures the resistance blood encounters as it flows through the vessels
• Heart rate variability, the variation in time between heartbeats
• Reflex sensitivity, which reflects how efficiently the nervous system regulates blood pressure beat by beat

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“This is a fascinating study revealing just a little bit of the right exercise even once a week has likely demonstrable cardiovascular benefits in terms of blood pressure reduction,” Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and metabolic health specialist at Ovadia Heart Health in Florida, told Fox News Digital.

“It also doesn’t cost anything to do wall squats at home.”

Malhotra, who was not involved in the study, noted that physical movement is only one piece of the puzzle.

“In my own personal clinical practice, I regularly see significant improvements in blood pressure with many patients coming off medication just from dietary change alone,” he said.

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“A low-carb Mediterranean diet is, in my view, the most substantial and effective intervention – not just for blood pressure, but for all metabolic health markers.”

The study cohort was relatively modest in size, consisting of 100 generally healthy, non-smoking adults who were not taking blood pressure medications.

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The findings cannot automatically be generalized to individuals with diagnosed hypertension, older populations with mobility limitations, or patients who are already on heart medications, the researchers acknowledged.

Additionally, because the maintenance phase lasted only four weeks, the researchers noted that longer-term trials are needed to see whether a once-weekly session can sustain blood pressure reductions over months or years.

Because the study involved physical activity, participants and researchers knew each person’s assigned exercise group.