This exercise 3 times a week could keep your blood pressure low – and it doesn’t take long: ScienceAlert

We all know that exercise is good for us, but not all of us have the time, motivation or mobility to keep up with regular workouts. Researchers try to help by looking for activities that bring the most benefit with the least amount of time and effort.

In a new study published in BMJ Open Sports and Exercise MedicineA team led by researchers at Christ Church University Canterbury in the United Kingdom has identified isometric exercise training (IET) as a way to reduce blood pressure with just a few sessions per week.

This is any training where a position is held for a few minutes at a time. Staying in a squat, holding a plank pose, or doing a grip exercise would count.

These exercises are quick and easy to perform, require no equipment, and researchers suggest they are an attractive option for those who can’t handle longer, more comprehensive workouts.

During the study period, ETI was associated with drops in systolic blood pressure – the highest number in a reading like 130/85, indicating the maximum blood pressure when your heart pumps blood, and the average pressure across all arteries.

“Low-frequency IET may help maintain short-term blood pressure reductions, providing a pragmatic option for individuals with limited time or compliance issues,” the researchers write in their published paper.

ETI has been linked to lower blood pressure in previous studies, but until now, no one had really studied the extent to which it was necessary – the duration and frequency required to achieve the greatest benefits.

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Here, researchers recruited 100 adults with an average age of 37 years, who did not meet minimum exercise guidelines and had normal to high systolic blood pressure (between 120 and 140 mm Hg).

For four weeks, 80 of these volunteers were asked to do wall squats three times a week (four squats per session), while the other 20 served as a control group. For the next four weeks, exercise participants were asked to maintain the three weekly sessions, or reduce them to two, one or none.

After the first four weeks, systolic blood pressure in the exercising group had dropped an average of 9.45 mm Hg compared to the control group. For those who completed all three sessions for eight weeks, the average drop increased to 13.73 mm Hg.

For those who completed a few sessions or just one session, the overall average drop after eight weeks was about 6.5 to 7 mm Hg. Meanwhile, the blood pressure of those who abandoned the exercises after four weeks returned to its previous level after four weeks.

“For optimal blood pressure reduction and maintenance of a broader range of physiological adaptations, a frequency of three times per week may be recommended,” the researchers write.

This is strong evidence of the blood pressure benefits of IET: systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressures all improved significantly compared to the control group after four weeks, although the frequency with which participants completed the training did not make a significant difference in the results.

Researchers believe exercises can relax and widen blood vessels, and put the nervous system into a calmer mode – but more detailed, longer-term studies will be needed to know for sure.

“Although causality cannot be confirmed, the observed alignment between mechanistic decline and loss of blood pressure reduction suggests that training frequency plays a critical role in maintaining the cardiovascular adaptations necessary for blood pressure control after IET,” the researchers write.

The team also suggests that extending IET beyond a few months could lead to real structural changes in blood pressure, meaning that the benefits would not disappear as soon as exercise stopped, as happened here.

It’s another reminder that when it comes to staying healthier through exercise, you don’t always need a lot of activity to improve your fitness.

“(The study) may inform policy discussions around feasible and scalable exercise interventions for populations with low adherence or limited tolerance to exercise,” the researchers write.

The research was published in BMJ Open Sports and Exercise Medicine.