Ever felt dizzy when getting up quickly from your bed? Blood pressure regulation is the culprit. Here is an easy way to measure what happens on yourself.

Step 1: Determine your own heart rate at rest by counting the number of pulsations per minute by palpation of aa. radialis. Then also palpate the carotid, dorsalis pedis and tibialis posterior. Enter your heart rate in the table below.

Step 2: Lay down and rest for 3 minutes, and then measure your heart rate. Then, get up and measure your heart rate again after the change of position. Enter the heart rates in the table. When standing up from lying to standing, the blood volume is shifted towards lower lying parts of the body. In order to maintain the mean arterial pressure, a compensatory vasoconstriction and heart rate increase takes place.

Step 3: Stand with bent legs (90 ° flexion in the hip and knee joint) against the wall ("wall sit/Samson’s chair”). Measure heart rate just when you can no longer hold the position. (Maximum time for wall sit is 15 min). Enter heart rate in the table. During static muscle work, the capillaries are compressed by surrounding muscles, which reduces the blood flow in the muscle and as a result the blood pressure is raised.