Simple Wall Exercise May Help Reduce Blood Pressure

New research suggests that a straightforward exercise done against a wall, just once or twice a week, may help keep blood pressure lower, without the need for intense training, a personal trainer or special equipment.

In a study involving 100 adults in England, researchers found that people who did wall squats once or twice a week still showed meaningful short-term reductions in systolic blood pressure. Those who kept exercising three times weekly saw the greatest gains, while participants who quit the routine lost the benefits they had built up.

The results, published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, indicate that lower-frequency isometric exercise could be a practical option for preserving some blood pressure improvements when regular workouts are hard to sustain.

"This study has shown that four weeks of isometric wall squat exercise lowers resting blood pressure in people with high-normal blood pressure, who arguably stand to gain the most from performing this type of exercise to help prevent them from developing stage 1 hypertension and its associated disease risk," the study's lead author, Jim Wiles, a professor at Canterbury Christ Church University, told Newsweek. "It also shows that after completing an initial four weeks of 4 x 2 minutes of wall squat three times weekly, it is then possible to reduce the training frequency to once a week for at least another four weeks before the reductions in resting blood pressure start to revert back to previous levels.

"This makes blood pressure management using this highly accessible form of exercise even more efficient for a significant majority who struggle to find the time and motivation to exercise."

How Wall Squats May Influence Blood Pressure

Isometric exercise means contracting muscles while holding the body still. Wall squats, planks and handgrip drills are common examples often included in exercise routines.

Earlier studies have shown that isometric training can lower blood pressure effectively, in some cases matching or exceeding the effects seen with certain medications. Researchers, however, have been less certain about how often people need to do it to preserve those benefits.

The new study included 100 adults with an average age of 37.4. Their systolic blood pressure ranged from 120 to 140 mmHg, spanning normal to high-normal levels, and none of them regularly took part in structured exercise.

Systolic readings between 130 and 139 mmHg are considered high-normal under expert guidance and call for targeted lifestyle advice from health professionals. None of the participants had been diagnosed with hypertension.

The volunteers were non-smokers, drank no more than 14 units of alcohol a week and had never used blood pressure medication, or were not using it at the time. They also had to be free of injuries and illness.

Researchers randomly assigned participants to five groups. Four groups first followed the same four-week home exercise program, while the fifth acted as a control group for comparison.

The workout required four wall-squat holds per session, with two minutes of seated rest between each hold, done three times a week.

Even One Weekly Session Made a Difference

After four weeks, all of the exercise groups showed significant improvements compared with the control group, including lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure and reduced mean arterial pressure, which reflects average pressure across the cardiac cycle.

To look for additional patterns, one group continued the routine three times a week for the next four weeks, another did it twice a week, another once a week, and a fourth group stopped altogether.

At eight weeks, those exercising once or twice weekly still showed significant reductions in systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure versus the control group, although neither schedule produced a statistically significant improvement in diastolic blood pressure.

The largest decline was seen in the group training three times a week. Their systolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 13.73 mmHg from the start of the study, compared with decreases of 6.95 mmHg in the twice-weekly group and 6.56 mmHg in the once-weekly group.

The three-times-weekly group also kept improvements in total peripheral resistance, a measure linked to blood vessel narrowing, as well as heart rate variability.

Blood pressure, heart rate and other cardiovascular measures were recorded at the start of the study and again after four and eight weeks. Participants who stopped exercising after four weeks lost their earlier blood pressure gains, and by eight weeks their readings were no longer significantly different from those of the control group.

"The group who had stopped doing the isometric exercises after the initial four-week period showed a reversal of their blood pressure to levels not significantly different from the control group," Wiles added.

In a joint statement, the authors said: "The study demonstrates that while lower frequency isometric exercise training may be sufficient to maintain blood pressure reductions over the short term, higher frequencies are required to preserve these benefits and the associated vascular and cardiac autonomic adaptations."

The researchers noted that the maintenance phase lasted only four weeks. They said longer studies are needed to determine whether less frequent isometric exercise can sustain the same benefits over months or years.

Reference

Swift, T. H., et al. (2026). Isometric exercise training and blood pressure control: exploring the dose-response to training frequency in a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. 12:e003172. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2025-003172.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.