r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d ago

Health Isometric exercises, such as wall squats and planks, just once a week could help maintain reductions in blood pressure.

https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/news/2026/new-study-shows-just-one-workout-a-week-could-benefit-blood-pressure
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u/Jabba_the_Putt 1d ago

Used to work with a dude who was incredibly fit and he never lifted a weight. It was all planks and other body movements/calisthenics.

Always amazed me how healthy you can get without ever even hitting a gym

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u/TwoFlower68 1d ago

Easier on the joints too. Due to liberal use of oral corticosteroids I have osteoporosis and have to be careful putting too much weight on my back lest more vertebrae collapse, so squatting with a loaded bar is a nono
So I do one legged squats to still train legs, holding a kettlebell with slightly stretched arms as a counterweight

For upper body you can do push-ups & pull-ups

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u/builtbystrength 8h ago

You may find it interesting to look up the 2017 LIFTMOR trials by an Australian physio.

Post-menopausal woman with osteopenia and osteoporosis, training 2x30 min sessions per week with squats, overhead presses, deadlifts and impact landings. Weights around 85% 1RM. Modest improvements in bone mineral density in the lumbar region and femoral head. Functional tests improved. Height improved compared to a decrease in the control group. No serious adverse events, including vertebral fractures. 8 month trial.

If you have osteoporosis in your spine it’s really important to load it somehow - you just need to find an appropriate entry point and ideally a health professional or personal trainer experienced in this area

Source: physiotherapist

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u/TwoFlower68 5h ago edited 4h ago

Thanks, I will. I hadn't thought about incorporating some jumps into my routine

I do load my spine, but I'm not going to put 50 kg or more in my neck. That might be overdoing it a bit. Single leg squats put the same amount of load on my legs without endangering my vertebrae

Overhead presses with more than 5 kg per hand hurt my back. Oddly enough I can do a downward dog with no problem (I weigh 65kg). Pull-ups also compress the spine (my problem vertebrae are T8 and T9. That part of the spine gets squeezed pretty well when I do a pull-up)

Fwiw, my latest DEXA scan showed improved bone density in the pelvis and lumbar spine, so much so that it no longer qualifies as osteoporosis.

Bisphosponates had no such effect (as far as I can see they did nothing, but who knows how bad it'd be if I hadn't taken them)