• Posted August 7, 2025

Standing Up More Frequently Might Protect Seniors' Heart Health

There’s a simple way older women can protect their heart health, a new study argues.

Just stand up.

Women who started standing up from a seated position more often during their day experienced notable improvement in blood pressure after three months, researchers reported recently in the journal Circulation.

Taking these short-standing breaks appeared to boost heart health even though the women didn’t increase their overall levels of intense exercise, researchers said.

“Our findings suggest that while sitting less was helpful, interrupting sitting with brief standing breaks — even if you don't sit less — can support healthy blood pressure and improve health,” lead researcher Sheri Hartman, a professor of public health and human longevity science at the University of California-San Diego, said in a news release.

For the study, researchers recruited more than 400 postmenopausal women who were overweight or obese, and randomly assigned them to one of three groups. The women had an average age of nearly 68.

One group was asked to reduce their sitting time, another to increase the number of times they rose from a sitting position, and a third to act as they normally do. All three groups were provided coaching sessions on healthy aging.

The women complied with the directives. Those in the “sit less” group wound up cutting their sitting time by 58 minutes a day, and the “stand more” group increased their sit-to-stand transitions by 26 per day, compared to the control group.

Results show that after three months the sit-to-stand group experienced a decrease in their systolic and diastolic blood pressure:

• Systolic blood pressure: The amount of pressure in blood vessels during a heartbeat declined by more than 3 mm/HG.

• Diastolic blood pressure: The pressure in vessels between heartbeats  declined by more than 2 mm/HG.

These decreases were not statistically significant, but researchers argue that the results show that standing up more often can influence blood pressure.

The sit less group had no real changes to their blood pressure, researchers said. Neither group experienced improvement in their blood sugar levels.

“What excites me most about this study is that women set their own goals and made a real difference in their sitting behaviors,” researcher Andrea LaCroix, a professor of public health and human longevity science at UC-San Diego, said in a news release. “With a little coaching, we can teach ourselves to sit less and it makes a tangible difference to our short-and long-term health.” 

Researchers plan to perform a follow-up study that will last longer, given that significant improvements in heart health might take longer than three months to occur.

“Adapting real-world interventions that are easy, realistic and aligned with our personal goals — such as stand up from sitting 25 extra times per day, like two times per hour over 12 hours — may be doable for so many of us,” LaCroix said.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on small steps for better heart health.

SOURCES: University of California-San Diego, news release, Aug. 4, 2025; Circulation, Aug. 4, 2025