Isometric Exercise for Hypertension

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hypertension

Treatments: Behavioral: passive stretching; Behavioral: wall squat

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06515054

IRE001

Details and patient eligibility

About

Background: Isometric resistance exercises (IREs) have great potential to improve blood pressure (BP) control.

Methods: This is a pilot randomized controlled trial that will involve 50 patients with hypertension (HT) who do not meet the current physical activity guidelines defined by the World Health Organization. Participants will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio using stratified and blocked randomization to either the IRE (wall squat) group or stretching exercise (active control) group. A well-structured, widely accepted, and validated 24-week wall squat program (2 minutes per exercise, 2 minutes of rest between sets, and 3 sessions per week) will be implemented, as it has been commonly used in previous research. All patients will be followed up for 24 weeks. Control group will receive exact same treatment except that IRE is replaced by frequency-matched and time-matched stretching exercise. The primary outcome measure will be rate of recruitment. Secondary outcomes will include BP parameters from 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring

Enrollment: 50 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• a suboptimal daytime SBP of >135-160 mmHg on a 24-h ABPM
• reported no regular physical activity or less than that recommended for adults by the World Health Organization (e.g. <150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week);
• on stable doses of anti-HT medication(s) for ≥4 weeks if the patient is receiving drug treatments
• agree for no drug changes during the intervention period (24 weeks);

Exclusion criteria

• cannot provide informed consent
• unwillingness to repeat ABPM
• relative contraindications to ABPM (i.e. diagnosed atrial fibrillation, nighttime workers, occupational drivers, or patients with bleeding tendencies)
• severe osteoarthritis pending knee replacement surgery
• known secondary HT
• use of ≥3 anti-HT medications at maximum doses or ≥4 anti-HT medications
• SBP or DBP are >160 mmHg or >100 mmHg, respectively, on ABPM
• pregnancy/breastfeeding
• active malignancy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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50 participants in 2 patient groups

isometric exercise

Experimental group

Description:

wall squat exercise. Each exercise session will contain 4 sets of 2-minute wall squat isometric holds with 2 minutes of rest between each set (approximately 14 minutes per session in total), and a total of 3 sessions will be arranged every week (with ideally 48 h between exercises)

Treatment:

Behavioral: wall squat

passive stretching

Active Comparator group

Description:

A frequency-matched (3x/week) and time-matched (\~14 minutes each session) passive static stretching exercise will be used

Treatment:

Behavioral: passive stretching