Evidence library · Blood pressure

Does water-based exercise affect blood pressure in menopause? What 8 studies found

Studies of water-based exercise in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured blood pressure. 6 reported an improvement and 0 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A network meta-analysis of 38 trials in postmenopausal women found water exercise best improved blood pressure and total cholesterol, combined training improved triglycerides and HDL, and resistance training improved LDL.

    Reported an improvementMeta-analysis · 1,407 participants pooled · 2022PostmenopausalCited 16 timesPubMed

  2. Sedentary postmenopausal women did 24 weeks of aquatic resistance exercise or elastic band training, both reducing body fat and blood pressure and improving strength and fitness tests similarly.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 46 women · 24 weeks · 2009PostmenopausalCited 69 timesPubMed

  3. In a 20-week RCT, postmenopausal women with stage 2 hypertension who swam 3 to 4 days a week showed reduced arterial stiffness and blood pressure and increased strength and aerobic capacity versus controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 100 women · 20 weeks · 2018PostmenopausalCited 38 timesPubMed

  4. In postmenopausal hypertensive women, 12 weeks of water-based aerobic exercise reduced systolic blood pressure similarly to dry land aerobic training, both versus no exercise.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 52 women · 12 weeks · 2014PostmenopausalCited 37 timesPubMed

  5. Postmenopausal women aged 45 to 59 did a 6 month strength and stamina exercise programme in water and on land, which lowered systolic blood pressure and insulin more than no exercise.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 63 women · 26 weeks · 2008PostmenopausalCited 7 timesPubMed

  6. Sedentary postmenopausal hypertensive women doing 8 weeks of aerobic exercise in mineral spring water showed reduced blood pressure and body fat and improved fitness versus controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 20 women · 8 weeks · 2020PostmenopausalCited 6 timesPubMed

  7. Twelve postmenopausal women performing different aquatic exercise movements showed lower blood pressure responses with a rocking motion than running or scissor kicks at matched perceived exertion.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 12 women · 2015PostmenopausalCited 2 timesPubMed

  8. A 12-week aquatic HIIT program in postmenopausal women improved blood lipids overall and lowered blood pressure in some genotype groups, with no consistent arterial stiffness benefit.

    Mixed resultsControlled trial · 47 women · 12 weeks · 2026PostmenopausalPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

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