Isolated and Combined Effects of Aerobic and Strength Exercise on Post-exercise Blood Pressure and Cardiac Vagal Reactivation in Normotensive Men

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and cardiac vagal reactivation (VR) after an aerobic training session (ATS), a strength training session (STS), and a combined aerobic and strength training session (ASTS) in normotensive men. Eleven healthy men (age 26.8 ± 2.9 years, body mass index 24.3 ± 1.6 kg·m) with at least 6 months of strength and aerobic training experience performed an STS, an ATS, and an ASTS in a counterbalanced crossover design. Blood pressure and HR were measured at rest and at 15-minute intervals post-training for 1 hour. Vagal reactivation was measured during the first minute immediately post-exercise. After STS and ASTS, systolic BP (SBP) and mean arterial BP (MAP) remained significantly lower than at rest at all time intervals (p < 0.05). After ATS, SBP was significantly lower than at rest at 30 minutes and beyond (p < 0.01); however, no significant differences were observed for MAP. Post-training HR remained high after STS and ASTS at all intervals (p < 0.01). However, after ATS, the HR remained high only at the 15-minute post-exercise interval (p < 0.01). Vagal reactivation was significantly less pronounced after the first 30 seconds post-exercise (p < 0.01) in ASTS (531.3 ± 329.6 seconds) than in ATS (220.7 ± 88.5 seconds) and in STS (317.6 ± 158.5 seconds). The delta of the HR decrease at 60 seconds post-exercise was greater (p < 0.00) in ATS (33.4 ± 12.7 b·min) than in STS (14.1 ± 7.2 b·min) and in ASTS (11.4 ± 7.1 b·min). In conclusion, post-exercise BP reduction was independent of the type of exercise; however, HR remained significantly greater after combination of strength and aerobic exercise, implying a reduction in cardiac VR after this type of training. Therefore, strength and conditioning professionals may prescribe aerobic, strength, or a combination of aerobic and strength exercise to assist individuals concerned with BP control, thus allowing for variety in training while similarly impacting post-exercise SBP regardless of desired exercise modality.

Pressão arterial e variabilidade de frequência cardíaca após o exercício aeróbio e com pesos realizados na mesma sessão

“…In this context, the performance of a session of aerobic and resistance exercises could cause more remarkable decrease of BP due to the high volume. However, Ruiz et al 15 observed that the performance of the two exercise models in one session did not promote more remarkable BP decrease, which is similar to what was observed in the present experiment. In this study, though, it was decided to have the exercise sessions combined in different orders, considering that the cardiovascular adjustment mechanisms after exercise are different between aerobic and resistance exercises.…”

“…Over the last years many experiments studied the blood pressure (BP) behavior after a single physical exercise session, either aerobic [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] or resistance [12][13][14][15][16][17] . It is expected that BP reduces after physical exercise in values below the ones at rest, in what it is termed post-exercise hypotension (PEH) 18 .…”

“…PEH presents relevant clinical implication, both in normotensive and hypertensive individuals, especially when BP reduction lasts for many hours 19 . The literature has many references on PEH related to aerobic exercise [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] , but information on resistance training is less frequent [12][13][14][15][16][17] . A possible explanation for this fact is that aerobic exercise is easier to be prescribed and controlled; moreover, it is the training model which provides the most reduction in rest BP in the long run.…”

“…It is possible that the performance order of such exercises implies in the cardiovascular behavior after exertion. An example of this hypothesis may be illustrated by a recent study 15 , which compared a session of aerobic exercise, a session of resistance training and a session composed of the two exercises in a sequence. The results show that the hypotensive effect was basically observed for the SBP; however, there were not differences between the experimental sessions; that is to say, the combination of both modalities did no cause higher PEH.…”

Impacto Do Exercício Contínuo E Intervalado Na Resposta Autonômica E Pressórica Em 24 Horas

“…A intensidade de exercício estabelecida na presente investigação (60-70% FC res ) seguiu os valores estabelecidos em outras investigações que identificaram ocorrência de hipotensão pós-exercício em amostra normotensa 18,19 . Nesse sentido, percebe-se que não existe diferença na percepção subjetiva de esforço entre as sessões de exercício contínuo e intervalado com duração de atividade de 30 minutos.…”