Squeezing a Towel or Stress Ball for Two Minutes May Help Reduce Blood Pressure

Key Takeaways

• Isometric exercises involve contracting muscles without any additional movement of the joint or muscle.
• Research suggests that regularly doing isometric handgrip exercises can help lower blood pressure levels.
• Experts say isometric exercises like these are most effective as part of a larger approach to blood pressure management.

Regular exercise is a well-known way to help lower blood pressure. But something as simple as squeezing a towel or stress ball for a couple of minutes several times a week may also make a difference. Here’s why isometric handgrip exercises may help, and how to add them safely to your routine.

How Isometric Handgrip Exercises Affect Blood Pressure

Isometric exercises involve contracting specific muscles without any movement at the joint or muscle. Squeezing a towel or stress ball is one example. Research on isometric handgrip exercises and blood pressure has produced mixed findings, but experts say the results depend largely on how consistently they are done.

“Most viral claims are a conflation of single-session and multi-week results, but the acute effect of a single session is small and short-lasting,” Nic Martinez, Ph.D., associate professor of instruction at the University of South Florida and performance scientist at USF’s Human Performance Lab, told Verywell.

For example, doing a handgrip exercise once or twice typically leads to only temporary blood pressure changes, if any. One study even suggests those short-term benefits may not last beyond 24 hours.

When these exercises are performed regularly over time, however, the effects on blood pressure appear to be much stronger.

In a large analysis, researchers reviewed how different types of exercise affect blood pressure. The findings showed that long-term isometric exercise was the most effective for improving resting blood pressure levels.

“Isometric exercises, if done repeatedly (for example, 4 repetitions of 2 minutes each), on a daily basis over more than 3 weeks, can result in a mild decrease in blood pressure,” Mazen Khalil, MD, a board-certified interventional cardiology specialist at Memorial Health University Medical Center, told Verywell.

One reason these exercises may help is that they encourage the body to release compounds such as nitric oxide, which relax blood vessels, Khalil said. That lowers resistance to blood flow, which in turn can reduce blood pressure. Over time, this may improve overall blood pressure levels.

How to Do Isometric Handgrip Exercises Safely

If you have not tried handgrip exercises before, there are a few things to know before starting. Most studies use a handgrip dynamometer, and using a towel or stress ball can make it harder to control the intensity, Martinez said.

Whatever equipment you choose, the goal is a light-to-moderate squeeze that you can hold for 2 minutes while breathing normally.

Once you are ready to try it:

• Sit comfortably with your elbow bent at about 90 degrees, keeping your wrist neutral and your arm fully supported.
• Do four 2-minute holds in total, resting 1–2 minutes between holds and alternating hands.
• Keep breathing and do not strain or hold your breath, since that can raise blood pressure.
• Do the exercise for a total of 12 minutes three days a week, ideally on non-consecutive days.

Incorporating Isometric Exercise Into Your Week

Isometric handgrip exercises can be a useful tool for managing blood pressure, but only if they are done consistently. “Think of it like strength training where the adaptation is cumulative,” Martinez said.

If you already have a workout routine, you might add this exercise at the beginning or end of it. You could also build a routine around other isometric exercises, such as wall sits or planks.

It is also helpful to think of isometric exercise as one part of a broader blood pressure strategy that includes a healthy diet, lower salt intake, regular exercise, and medical therapy, Khalil said.

“Approaching hypertension management from multiple angles will result in more successful and long-term control of the blood pressure,” he added.