The kettle is on, music playing and I’m sitting down after a frantic morning. Bliss. Or it would be if I had a chair. Without one, my thighs are burning. After two minutes, they start to shake. Three minutes in and they’re wobbling so furiously I wonder if they’re about to combust.
Standing up again after three and a half minutes, the blood rushes back to my leg muscles, and a burst of euphoria floods my brain. I congratulate myself on a job well done and make myself that cup of tea.
For the past couple of months, the wall sit has been my secret strength training weapon. Although weighted squats, lunges and deadlifts have long been part of my exercise routine, it is this ridiculously simple exercise – you squat leaning against a wall, hold the position and that’s it – that has made my thighs their steeliest yet.
Deceptively unsparing – I defy anyone not to want to scream by the end – the wall sit has been around for so long I think most of us have either forgotten it exists, or we forgo it in favour of more exciting exercises using fancy equipment. Or perhaps memories of doing them in PE lessons put us off. For my husband, they were a school punishment, or “torture,” as he put it, surprised to walk into the kitchen to see me grimacing in the act while waiting for the veg to boil for dinner one evening.
Personal trainer Kate Rowe-Ham, who used to practice them in preparation for ski holidays, describes them “a great all over body move, which focuses on the quadriceps at the front of your thighs but also recruit your glutes, hamstrings, core and even your shoulders which help stabilise your back against the wall”.
It’s kinder to knees than dynamic exercises and can be useful when you’re coming back from injuryFor convenience, wall sits are unrivalled. You can do them wearing whatever you like, with or without shoes, wherever you like – even while watching TV or scrolling if you must, although I’m not sure the messages I’ve replied to while doing them have been my most lucid.
Literally, all you need is a wall. Stand with your back to it, feet shoulder-width apart, walk your feet forward around two feet, slide down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, your knees over your ankles, and stay there as long as you can.
An isometric exercise, meaning your muscles contract, but don’t move, it’s brilliant for building muscular endurance and is more “joint friendly for people who find squats and lunges difficult,” says Rowe-Ham, who suggests beginners start with a 20-second wall sit, and build from there. “It’s a great addition to a workout, as long as it’s done as part of a structured routine.”
It’s also kinder to knees than dynamic exercises and can be useful when you’re coming back from injury. I rediscovered them in March, after cricking my neck in my sleep. I didn’t want to risk exacerbating the strain by doing my usual weighted squats.
In search of a safe stand-in, I saw an influencer doing wall sits on Instagram. It felt like a sign. I set my initial “sit” for three minutes, which is roughly how long I spend on squats, timing myself with my Casio watch.
The challenge is psychological as much as physical – without flexing and extending the muscles, the concentric and eccentric movements typical in most dumbbell exercises, you’re increasing their time under tension, key for muscular endurance, as well as decreasing distraction from the burn as it builds. And although there’s no weight involved, this burn feels far more intense on my quadriceps by the end than conventional squats.
Developing muscle isn’t the only benefit. A major 2023 review of several types of exercise including aerobic training, dynamic resistance training and High Intensity Interval Training in British Journal of Sports Medicine found isometric exercise such as wall sits “particularly” good at reducing blood pressure.
Isometric exercises are different from other exercises because they “increase the tension in the muscles when held for two minutes, then cause a sudden rush of blood when you relax,” said study author and Reader in cardiovascular physiology at Canterbury Christ Church university Dr Jamie O’Driscoll. “This increases the blood flow, but you must remember to breathe.”
Another six-week study in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science found wall sits just as efficient as glute bridges (where you lie on your back and lift your hips in the air, squeezing your glutes) at developing core muscles including the transversus abdominis and internal obliques, essential for posture and stability. The added bonus being you don’t have to lie down to do them. “They’re so versatile you could even get colleagues to do them with you at work – suggest a wall sit challenge,” says Rowe-Ham.
When my neck felt better enough to resume squats, still important for working my glutes and hamstrings, I decided to keep my wall sit habit, doing them on days I don’t lift weights, around chores or whenever I want a physical or mental boost.
To progress, I add one or two seconds to my sit each time, trying not to stare at my watch throughout as that only makes the time go slower. I’m currently at three minutes, 33 seconds. To avoid taking too much of a dent out of my day, there are other steps I can take to make it more difficult, says Rowe-Ham.
She gets clients at her online classes on her app, Owning Your Menopause, to hold a dumbbell or weight plate across their knees while wall sitting. “Or you could lift one leg up a couple of inches off the floor, and do it one-legged, or raise your heels off the ground to increase the load on your calf muscles and improve your balance,” she suggests. Which sounds even more brutal, but still brilliantly simple, and over by the time the kettle has boiled.
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