Listen in to Body Works Sports Physiotherapy’s Physiotherapist Dalen Friesen. Dalen discusses a simple technique to help lower blood pressure with a simple easy exercise that you can do during your day at home or work.

Here is the transcript from the video:

Hi, I’m Dalen, physiotherapist at Body Works Sports Physiotherapy in North Vancouver.

When it comes to lowering blood pressure, we typically have seen studies that show aerobic exercise being the form of exercise to do this. But a recent study in 2023 in the British Journal of Medicine looked at studying comparing aerobic exercise, dynamic strengthening (so that’s going through movement with weight), high intensity interval training as well as isometric training. Isometric training is when a muscle that is being used under load but not changing in length. The study found that isometric exercise was the most effective way to lower blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic.

So two simple examples would be doing a wall squat, simply leaning against the wall, coming down into roughly 90 degrees position and holding this until feeling some discomfort in the in the thighs. The exercises in the studies showed that doing 4 up to a minute of these three times a week was effective in lowering blood pressure in the subjects in the study. Another simple exercise would be doing a forward plank. This could be done lying down on the floor and holding your body in this still position.

This information is encouraging for those who are looking to lower blood pressure and find a form of exercise that is quite easily done, whether it’s in the home or office. It just needs to be done a few times a week and is effective.

If you have any questions on this or any other concerns, feel free to contact us at Body Works in North Van and thank you.

For more general health information about High Blood pressure and how to manage high blood pressure, please talk to your doctor or cardiologist or check out this link the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.