As regular readers know, I’m a big advocate of exercise. I’m also non-dogmatic about the topic. Since people are much more likely to do well with – and stick to – a program they enjoy, I think it’s more important to regularly move your body in some way than to rigidly advocate for a specific program. If you love running, you should run. If you go to a yoga class that you really enjoy, you should do yoga. If you like lifting heavy things, you should strength train.
That doesn’t mean however that there aren’t specific benefits to different types of exercise, nor that you aren’t better off with a well structured approach to fitness. The “best” fitness program includes components of strength work, of mobility work, and of various types of cardiovascular fitness. If you enjoy all types of exercise and/or will stick to whatever plan is “the best” without regard for your personal preference, then a mix of something like yoga, weight lifting, and running is probably better than doing only one of those activities. But if the only exercise you will consistently do is to take long bike rides, I’d much rather you ride your bike regularly than do nothing at all because you are bored or overwhelmed by the other options.
On the topic of “the best” exercise program, I’d like to get a bit more granular today and review one question regarding exercise in particular: what is the “best” workout program to lower blood pressure.
A few years back, a group of doctors in the UK ran something called a meta-analysis, which is essentially a “study of studies.” In a meta-analysis, researchers take a bunch of previously published studies and amalgamate the data from all of them into one data set, which they then analyze. Like any type of study, there are limitations to meta-analyses, but the strength of them is that they take a very “bird’s eye” view of the science. Rather than focusing on the results of one small study, they look at the totality of evidence on a particular question. For example, a single small study could by fluke come up with any particular result, but if twenty studies have been done on a question, and seventeen of them strongly show one particular conclusion, then it’s a pretty good bet that that conclusion is probably the correct one.
In this specific case, the researchers performed a meta-analysis of all relevant studies they could find that measured blood pressure responses to different exercise regimens. The punchline? All exercise programs reduce blood pressure, but the one that does so the most is isometric exercise.
In Isometric exercises, one holds a static position for a period of time, rather than going through a full range of motion. For example, a plank (instead of a push-up) or a wall squat (where one squats halfway down while leaning on a wall and holds that position for several minutes) instead of regular squats. They found that doing just 10-15 minutes of this type of exercise three times per week was as effective as taking a blood pressure medication.
An example regimen if you wish to apply this would be to do a wall squat for two minutes, rest for two minutes, and repeat two more times for a total 12 minute workout. Squats were the most widely studied exercise, so we can say with certainty that this works, although it’s most likely that any other isometric exercise would be similarly effective.
Yet again we see the brilliant simplicity of exercise: a regimen that you can do at home, while listening to a podcast or watching TV, for a total of less than 40 minutes per week, can dramatically improve your health and well being. No trainer, no gym membership, and no fancy equipment are required.
Ideally you would pair such a regimen with other forms of exercise, but as alluded to in the opening paragraph of this post, if you do no more than this regimen, you will be vastly better off than if you do nothing at all.
