Acute effects of resistance exercise on heart rate variability in cardiopathic patients: cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Resistance exercise is used in clinical practice to improve muscle strength and resistance of patients with heart disease. However, it lacks studies regarding its acute effects on cardiac autonomic modulation. This cross-sectional study has aimed to evaluate the acute effects of resistance exercise on heart rate variability (HRV) in cardiopathic patients.. Methods: We investigated 15 volunteers (63.8 ± 10.7 years old; 29.9 ± 4.32 Kg/m 2), which were submitted to one maximal repetition (1RM) of knee extension and to the acute interventions with of 40% and 80% of 1RM, with minimal intervals of 48 hours. HRV was analyzed in the SDNN, RMSSD, Poincaré Plot, HF, LF, and LF/HF ratio indexes. We evaluated HRV in the periods of rest (10 min) and recovery (60 minutes, divided into 6 windows). Findings: No differences were observed between the immediate recovery and rest periods for all indexes. We observed increase in all indexes after 20 minutes of recovery. No differences were verified between the different protocols. Conclusion: A single acute session of resistance exercise in different intensities did not change the cardiac autonomic modulation.

Effect of resistance added on aerobic training on autonomic function in cardiac patients

“…They included 20 studies in their meta-analysis with different types of exercises such as RT (15,16) aerobic training, combined resistance, and aerobic training, yoga (44), and respiratory exercise training (35); but only two of them evaluated the effects of RT on HRV in patients with CHF. The exercise intensity in most aerobic programs was moderate (40%-70% maximum heart rate or reserved heart rate) (33,41,42) and only in one of them, the exercise intensity was 60%-80% reserved heart rate (45), and intensity in RT programs was reported as moderate (60%1RM). Ricca-Mallada et al (13) demonstrated that HRV could be a valuable, helpful, predictive, and cost-effective indicator for screening patients with CHF (class I, II, and III) who could benefit more from cardiac rehabilitation programs.…”