Want to lower your blood pressure? A new study pinpoints exactly what kind of exercise is best for easing blood pressure, and it doesn’t involve running on the treadmill or pumping iron at the gym.
Instead, the study reveals that static isometric exercises like wall sits (also known as wall squats) and planks — which engage muscles without movement — are best for lowering blood pressure.
The new analysis, a systematic review of 270 studies, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), confirms that many types of exercise — including aerobic activity, weight training and high-intensity interval training – help to lower blood pressure, but it found that isometric exercises offer the biggest benefit.
Of the exercises examined, the wall sit was the most effective, the study found.
It’s long been known that physical activity has blood pressure benefits, but the review is important because doctors often recommend heart-healthy activities like walking, running and cycling as their top choices for patients with hypertension.
But isometric exercises are almost twice as effective at lowering blood pressure compared with just doing cardio, the study shows. Study author Jamie O’Driscoll, a researcher in cardiovascular physiology at Christ Canterbury Church University, says he and his colleagues launched the BJSM review because they have seen the blood pressure benefits of isometric exercise firsthand, and they wanted “to draw together the evidence for the wider audience”
“These findings provide a comprehensive data-driven framework to support the development of new exercise guideline recommendations for the prevention and treatment of arterial hypertension,” he and his coauthors wrote in the review.
To learn more about static isometric exercises, and how they are best for your blood pressure, from AARP, CLICK HERE.
