Wall Sits and Blood Pressure: How Often?
Wall sits and blood pressure made the health news this week, and for once the story is a randomized trial rather than a checklist. One hundred adults with systolic pressure between 120 and 140 mmHg did four two-minute wall squats, three times a week, at home, for four weeks; their resting systolic pressure finished about 9 mmHg below a control group's. Then the researchers split them up. Those who kept three sessions a week ended week eight 13.7 mmHg below where they started; one or two sessions a week held roughly half of that; those who stopped were back level with the controls within a month. Here is what the trial did, why wall squats of all things, what happens to your pressure during the hold, and where daily support for healthy blood flow and circulation from a nattokinase supplement sits beside the exercise.
In this article: Why a wall sit, of all things · What the new trial did · How often is enough? · Why the effect fades so fast · What happens to your blood pressure during the hold · How the research did it at home · Where Great Billiom Nattokinase 10,800 FU fits
Why a wall sit, of all things
The wall squat, or wall sit, is the exercise where you slide your back down a wall until your knees bend and then hold still. It belongs to a family called isometric exercise: the muscle works hard, but nothing moves. For most of the last century, exercise advice for blood pressure meant aerobic work. Then in 2023 a network meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine pooled 270 randomized controlled trials with 15,827 participants and ranked every training mode by what it did to resting pressure. Aerobic training was worth about 4.5 mmHg off the systolic number, resistance training about the same, combined training about 6. Isometric training came out at 8.24 mmHg systolic and 4.00 diastolic, and ranked first with a 98 percent probability of being the most effective mode. Among the isometric sub-types, the wall squat led for systolic pressure at 10.47 mmHg, ahead of handgrip squeezing at 7.10.
Two caveats travel with that headline. The wall-squat figure rests on only four trials, against 17 for handgrip. And the reductions were "substantially larger" in people who started with high blood pressure than in people whose baseline was normal, so a reader at 118 over 76 should not expect ten points. What the meta-analysis could not answer, because almost no trial had asked, was how often you have to keep doing it.
What the new trial did
The study behind this week's coverage, by Harry Swift and colleagues at Canterbury Christ Church University, was published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine and picked up by ScienceDaily on October 26. It recruited 100 adults, 45 percent of them women, average age 37, who did less than 150 minutes of moderate activity a week and whose systolic pressure sat between 120 and 140 mmHg with no history of blood-pressure medication. By the American Heart Association's categories, that range spans "elevated" (120 to 129) and "stage 1" (130 to 139); the group averages were 128 to 132 over 81 to 85.
Everyone in the exercise groups first did the same four weeks: four two-minute wall squats separated by two minutes of seated rest, three times a week with 48 hours between sessions, at home. The knee angle, which sets how hard a wall squat is, was chosen for each person in the lab so that heart rate in the last 30 seconds of a hold reached 95 percent of the peak from an incremental test; a wrist monitor checked it each session. Adherence was nearly perfect: 77 of 80 did all 12 sessions.
At week four, the exercisers' systolic pressure was 9.45 mmHg lower than the controls', diastolic 5.47 lower and mean arterial pressure 6.80 lower. Then came the question the trial was built for. The 80 exercisers were randomized to continue at three, two, one or zero sessions a week for another four weeks, 20 people in each group, with 20 controls who never trained.
How often is enough?
Weeks 5 to 8 | Systolic change from baseline at week 8 | What else held |
3 sessions a week | −13.73 mmHg (131.2 → 117.5) | Peripheral resistance, heart-rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity all stayed improved |
2 sessions a week | −6.95 mmHg (129.4 → 122.5) | Systolic and mean pressure stayed below baseline; the vessel and nerve measures did not |
1 session a week | −6.56 mmHg (129.9 → 123.3) | Same as two sessions; no significant difference between the two groups |
0 sessions a week | 131.5 → 127.7, not different from control | Everything regressed toward control within four weeks |
The pattern is unusually clean. Three sessions a week did not just hold the week-four gain; it roughly doubled it, and it was the only schedule that preserved the changes in peripheral resistance, heart-rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity, the measures of how tightly the vessels are set and how well the nervous system steers the heart. One or two sessions kept about half the systolic benefit, and two bought nothing measurable over one. Stopping erased it in a month. The authors' summary: "higher frequencies are required to preserve these benefits and the associated vascular and cardiac autonomic adaptations."
The limitation the authors put first is the clock: the maintenance phase lasted only four weeks, "relatively short" in cardiovascular terms, so nobody knows whether the one-session group would have drifted back to baseline by week 12 or settled where it was. The participants were also young, mostly in their thirties, and not on medication; the results describe them, not everyone.
Why the effect fades so fast
The speed of the regression is the most interesting thing in the paper, and the authors offer a reason. Training programs of eight weeks or longer, they write, have been shown to produce structural changes in arteries, "such as increased arterial diameter and reduced wall thickness." Programs of four weeks or less tend to produce functional changes instead, a vessel lining that relaxes more readily in response to the friction of blood moving along it, and those "have been shown to reverse rapidly on training cessation." Four weeks had bought the fast, reversible kind of adaptation, which is why a month off was enough to lose it. Our article on how to improve circulation while sitting explains that same friction signal, shear stress, and why a day in a chair removes it.
The original home-based wall-squat trial from the same lab, 28 healthy men in the European Journal of Applied Physiology in 2017, fits that picture: after four weeks, resting pressure fell 4 over 3 mmHg, and the change tracked a lower resting heart rate and cardiac output rather than any change in vessel resistance. Short programs seem to work first through the heart's pace and the vessels' tone, both of which adapt fast and un-adapt just as fast.
What happens to your blood pressure during the hold
Resting pressure goes down over weeks; pressure during the hold itself goes sharply up, and that is worth knowing before you try one. In a 2014 study in the Journal of Sports Sciences, 23 healthy adults held a two-minute wall squat at ten different knee angles. At a shallow 135-degree bend, heart rate averaged 76 and pressure 134 over 76. At a deep 90-degree bend, thighs parallel to the floor, heart rate hit 119 and pressure 196 over 112. Depth is intensity, and intensity shows up in the arteries immediately.
The same group tested the safety question directly in 26 men in their mid-forties with pressure in the 120 to 139 range, published in Medicine in 2018. During a standard four-by-two-minute training session, systolic pressure averaged 171 and diastolic 113; nobody exceeded 250 systolic, no adverse effects were reported, but six of the 26 pushed diastolic pressure above 115 mmHg during the session. The authors concluded the response "may suggest the need to individualise" the prescription for people whose resting pressure is not well controlled. The practical translation is the instruction every one of these trials gave: breathe normally throughout the hold, because holding your breath and bearing down, the Valsalva maneuver, drives pressure higher still. And if you take blood-pressure medication, or have been told your pressure is high, this is a conversation to have with your doctor before you slide down the wall, not after.
There is a flip side. Once the hold ends, pressure often dips below baseline for a while. Our article on whether you need to cool down after exercise covers that post-exercise drop and why standing up slowly matters.
How the research did it at home
A 2024 pilot study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology spelled out the home version without a laboratory. Participants lowered their back down a sturdy wall and walked their feet forward until they reached a marked squat height, keeping the lower leg vertical and the trunk upright, then held for two minutes, rested seated for two, and repeated four times, three days a week. Instead of a heart-rate target, the 2024 study let people set their depth by feel: a squat height they expected would rate about 4 on a 0-to-10 effort scale after the first two-minute hold, rising to about 5.5, 7 and 8.5 across holds two, three and four as fatigue accumulated, adjusting the height a centimeter or two at a time. Four weeks later, every participant in both the effort-guided and heart-rate-guided groups had dropped at least 5 mmHg, and the two methods did not differ.
The time cost is the appeal: four holds and three rests come to about 14 minutes, three times a week, with no equipment. What the trials do not say is that wall squats replace the rest of an active life. The 2023 meta-analysis found running the most effective single sub-mode for diastolic pressure, and the case for aerobic movement rests on far more than resting pressure; our article on whether you really need 10,000 steps a day covers where that evidence actually bends. The honest reading of this week's trial is narrower and more useful: if you add wall squats for your resting pressure, three sessions a week is the dose the data supports, and the benefit lasts exactly as long as the practice does.
Where Great Billiom Nattokinase 10,800 FU fits
A wall squat is a practice you do three times a week, and its effect on resting pressure lives and dies with the schedule. Nattokinase belongs to the other side of the same approach, the part you take daily. It is an enzyme from natto, the fermented soybean dish, and the research on it concerns healthy blood flow, blood viscosity and daily circulation over months, not a two-minute hold. No nattokinase trial has measured anything about isometric exercise or asked whether the enzyme adds to a wall-squat program, so this article makes no such claim. What Great Billiom builds the formula for is what the product page says: support for your body's natural ability to maintain healthy blood flow, healthy blood viscosity and daily circulation, for men and women over 40 who want to stay active and make heart health a daily priority alongside regular movement, good sleep and a balanced diet.
Each two-capsule serving delivers 10,800 FU of nattokinase. That matches the higher dose arm of the largest nattokinase study to date, 1,062 adults followed for 12 months in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, whose authors state plainly that it "represents a retrospective study and not a randomized control trial." The serving also carries 180 mcg of vitamin K2 (MK-7) and 240,000 SPU of serrapeptase in delayed-release vegetarian capsules: 90 capsules, 45 servings, a 45-day supply. The label directs two capsules daily on an empty stomach, at least one hour before or two hours after a meal, and many people take theirs before bed. Nattokinase contains soy. Anyone taking an anticoagulant, antiplatelet or blood-pressure medication, anyone pregnant or nursing, and anyone with surgery scheduled should talk to their doctor before starting it.
Key takeaways
In a 100-adult randomized trial published this fall and covered in the news this week, four weeks of home wall squats (four two-minute holds, three times a week) left resting systolic pressure 9.45 mmHg below controls (Swift 2026).
Keeping three sessions a week for another four weeks took the systolic reduction to 13.73 mmHg from baseline and preserved the vessel and nerve adaptations behind it; one or two sessions kept about half the systolic effect; stopping erased it within a month.
Isometric training ranked first of all exercise modes for resting pressure in a 270-trial meta-analysis, at 8.24 over 4.00 mmHg, with the wall squat the leading sub-type at 10.47 systolic, on only four trials (Edwards 2023).
Pressure rises steeply during the hold itself, to an average of 171 over 113 in one training-session study, so breathe normally and talk to your doctor first if you take blood-pressure medication (Wiles 2018).
The maintenance phase ran only four weeks and the participants averaged 37 years old, so how long the benefit holds in older adults, or over months, is still unanswered.
The trial's message is a useful one for anyone building a practice of movement into their week: the schedule is the result. For the daily side of healthy blood flow and circulation, Great Billiom Nattokinase 10,800 FU gives you the research-matched dose with K2 MK-7 and serrapeptase in one two-capsule serving, taken as the label directs.
Frequently asked questions
Do wall sits affect blood pressure?
In the research, yes. A 2023 meta-analysis of 270 randomized trials found isometric exercise, which includes wall sits, produced the largest reductions in resting pressure of any training mode, 8.24 over 4.00 mmHg on average, and the wall squat was the leading sub-type. Reductions were larger in people who started with high blood pressure than in those with normal readings.
How often should you do wall sits for blood pressure?
The 2026 trial tested exactly that. After four weeks at three sessions a week, people who continued at three sessions reached 13.73 mmHg below their starting systolic pressure; one or two sessions a week held about 6.5 to 7 mmHg; stopping erased the gain within four weeks. Three sessions a week, 48 hours apart, is the dose the data supports.
How long should you hold a wall sit?
Every trial used four holds of two minutes each, separated by two minutes of seated rest, 14 minutes in all. Depth sets the intensity: the research set knee angle so heart rate reached 95 percent of peak, or let people choose a depth that felt like 4 out of 10 after the first hold, rising to 8.5 by the fourth.
Are wall sits safe if you have high blood pressure?
Pressure climbs sharply during the hold: in 26 men with readings of 120 to 139, a training session averaged 171 over 113, and six went above 115 diastolic. No adverse effects were reported, but the authors said the prescription may need individualizing. If you take blood-pressure medication or your pressure runs high, ask your doctor first, and breathe normally throughout.
Does nattokinase do what wall sits do?
No, and no nattokinase trial has measured anything about isometric exercise, so this article makes no such claim. Wall sits are a three-times-a-week practice whose effect lasts as long as the schedule does. Great Billiom Nattokinase 10,800 FU is daily support for healthy blood flow and circulation, taken as the label directs: two capsules a day on an empty stomach.
Megan Elliott, Content Editor at Great Billiom. Every claim in this article is sourced from the primary research linked above. Read our editorial standards → thegreatbilliom.com/editorial-standards
Sources
Swift HT, Pedlar C, Coleman DA, Buckley JP, Wiles JD. "Isometric exercise training and blood pressure control: exploring the dose-response to training frequency in a randomised controlled trial." BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 2026;12(3):e003172.
ScienceDaily. "The surprisingly simple exercise that could lower your blood pressure." October 26, 2026 (BMJ Group release on the study above).
Edwards JJ, Deenmamode AHP, Griffiths M, et al. "Exercise training and resting blood pressure: a large-scale pairwise and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials." British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2023;57(20):1317–1326.
Wiles JD, Goldring N, Coleman D. "Home-based isometric exercise training induced reductions resting blood pressure." European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2017;117(1):83–93.
Goldring N, Wiles JD, Coleman D. "The effects of isometric wall squat exercise on heart rate and blood pressure in a normotensive population." Journal of Sports Sciences, 2014;32(2):129–136.
Wiles JD, Taylor K, Coleman D, Sharma R, O'Driscoll JM. "The safety of isometric exercise: Rethinking the exercise prescription paradigm for those with stage 1 hypertension." Medicine, 2018;97(10):e0105.
Lea JWD, O'Driscoll JM, Wiles JD. "The implementation of a home-based isometric wall squat intervention using ratings of perceived exertion to select and control exercise intensity: a pilot study in normotensive and pre-hypertensive adults." European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2024;124(1):281–293.
American Heart Association. "Understanding Blood Pressure Readings."
Chen H, et al. "Effective management of atherosclerosis progress and hyperlipidemia with nattokinase: A clinical study with 1,062 participants." Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 2022;9:964977.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.
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